by Ulysses » Tue Apr 10, 2012 2:36 pm
Dear _______,
Your lack of self-confidence pains me. You're afraid the world will crush you; a high pressure tank of
water waiting for you to poke a tentative hand in there and have it pulverized. You're afraid of air and
suction and other people. People are animals, ________. You are an animal. There are rules that govern
what people do to one another. But in the end, is the opinion of an animal really all that consequential to
you? Is a lifetime really so long that you can chose to waste it twiddling your thumbs and hoping that
the world will turn out better tomorrow? That patience will earn you a jar of cookies and a pocket full
of sunshine?
Action is the word, _______. Act the part of a leo; be bold and brassy and unmistakeably sassy. Rear your
head! Shake your mane! Lions can't twiddle their thumbs; they don't have thumbs to twiddle. Perhaps it
would have turned out better for you if you had indeed been born a dog and you never had to deal with
mind games or self-confidence issues. But then again, that isn't true either. Dogs have self-confidence issues
or there would be no timid dogs. Their tails tucked between their quivering, fearful legs. Their eyes bulging
from their sockets. Their terrified expressions, licking their lips not in hunger for a potential meal but as though
to ascertain once and for all that their faces are still there, preserved and intact. Should you become a dog then,
________? Is a dog better off than a human?
And what if you were a bee? A bee does their job. A bee makes honey, builds a nest for a queen. A bee knows
that in order to be a splendid bee there's nothing to be but a bee in a hive of bees. A bee knows that its
place is to bring home nectar. To dance out the routes it takes to precious, precocious flowers ever so eager
to spread pollen on their furry little bee legs. But a bee must be under a mother bee. The queen reigns over
her brood. A bee lives such a short and fuzzy life too. Not to mention the allergies: ACHOO!
So then why are you complaining, ________? You are not a dog, living in a world of a constant battle for
superiority. You are not a bee, slaving mindlessly as a drone under a matriarch. You are a human with
self-confidence issues. Are they really self-confidence issues now, or are you just conjuring problems for yourself?
Crafting them from the sticky saps of worry and stress; a heady mess that trickles down the throat
and into your lungs. Choking your soul and coating your teeth and gums. Fretting does nothing but make
the goop travel faster in wriggling, writhing spurts of zeal and gusto.
Don't let the slimy bugger win, ________. You can kill it with a dash of salt and perhaps a piece of chocolate.
You are a you. And that's all there is to it. Because somebody has to do the job of being you. And while
you're at it, you might as well do a good job, for if some other idiot made their way into your body and
started deciding your actions for you, you wouldn't be very pleased now would you? No you wouldn't.
That was a rhetorical question, ________. You have self confidence. At the moment, however, you are
not seeing fit to utilize it. Now is the time. You're not a dog or a bee. Nobody else is controlling your
body. You have no excuses. Set to it!
-Ulyss!
Last edited by
Ulysses on Wed Apr 11, 2012 3:10 am, edited 3 times in total.

I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Were and When
And How and Why and Who.
I send them over land and sea,
I send them east and west;
And after they have worked for me,
I give them all a rest.
I let them rest from nine till five,
For I am busy then,
As well as breakfast, lunch, and tea,
For they are hungry men.
But different folk have different views;
I know a person small~
She keeps ten million serving-men,
Who get no rest at all!
She sends 'em abroad on her own affairs,
From the second she opens her eyes
One million Hows, two million Wheres,
And seven million Whys!
-Rudyard Kipling