I don't like hiding,
I don't like playing superficial phony games.
I want to stop playing them.
I want to be genuine and spontaneous and me,
but you've got to help me.
You've got to hold out your hand even
when that's the last thing I seem to want.
Only you can wipe away from my eyes the
blank stare of the breathing dead.
Only you can call me into aliveness.
Each time you're kind, and gentle, and encouraging,
each time you try to understand because you really care,
my heart begins to grow wings..
very small wings,
but wings!
With your power to touch me into feeling
You can breathe life into me.
I want you to know that.
I want you to know how important you are to me,
how you ca be a creator--an honest-to-God creator
of the person that is me, if yo choose to.
You alone can break down the wall behind which I tremble,
You alone can remove my mask,
You alone can release me from the shadow-world of panic,
from my lonely prison, if you choose to.
Please choose to.
Do not pass me by.
It will not be easy for you.
A long conviction of worthlessness build strong walls.
The nearer you approach me,
the blinder I may strike back.
It's irrational, but despite what the books may say about man
often I am irrational.
I fight against the very thing I cry out for.
But, I am told that love is stronger than strong walls
and in this lies hope.
Please try to beat down those walls with firm hands
but gentle hands, for a child is very sensitive.
Who am I, you may wonder?
I am someone you know very well.
For I am every man you meet,
and I am every woman you meet.
By Charles C. Finn
