How can one discern the real form of one’s shadow? Does he wait, until the brightest time of day, when the sun is directly in his zenith and his shadow is but a small oval? Perhaps when the sun blinds him at an angle and his shadow takes a form larger than he, dwarfing his own fleshy build. Maybe his most suitable footprint is not his own, but the footprint of those identical to him. Perhaps the only way to escape the absorbency of the pulsing sun is to hide in the shadow of someone else. All Light casts shadows, and while these shadows all change and twist their forms, they all share one thing in common; they are forced to live in the darkness of their symbiotic partner. So it seems only appropriate when you live as a shadow that you hide like a troglodyte, perpetually keeping yourself at opposition with the source of light, crying out when the sun seeks to find you.
I suppose some shadows do not wish to be such. Striving for individuality within a world fated to try and keep it from them. Some might yearn to partake in the joys of photosynthesis and try to bend away from the objects blocking their path to the source; unaware that in order to change shape, to grow, to break away, they depend on the very thing they are attached to, oblivious to the fact that the shadow requires its partner to change and grow before it can.
What can truly become of a person or thing when it’s never seen? Does it become a specter, simply haunting its host? Does it pull the host back? Ground him? Keep him from flight? Reveal to him that he is only human, forced to live within the same trapping that binds all other mortals: To be behind the sun rather than beyond it.
The shadow bearer is left with three paths to choose from, all of equal importance and different morality. To embrace his parasitic shadow, comforting himself with its existence, turning his back to the sun and facing the shade, keeping from turning towards the light. He can stand within the shade of a different object, eliminating his own shadow and living his life within the form of another. Or he can keep looking towards the sun, consciously turning from the presence of the stalking darkness, but ignoring the desperation, movements, and pleas of the wraith.
When you are born into a body that takes the image of another, you ask yourself a question much like the famous “chicken and egg” conundrum. Do you take the form of he or does he take the form of you? The answer became a needed justification of superiority, capable of transforming you into the host or into the guest.
My brother, my twin, a full moon’s light may pale in comparison to the sun, and perhaps the moon is simply reflecting the light given to it by its host, but I will work with what is given to me and try to illuminate the lives of those who prefer the night.
#shadow #coletureconcept #comparison #inadequacy #finally no anthropology!#sibling #twins