Essays, Etc.

Cards, Etc. (by @_showmethestars)

Everyone has built a house of cards at one point or another.

You make a strong base stretching all the way across your table, building it so that it will be able to withstand the weight of more cards. Then you set up the middle layer, intricate and sturdy, placing each card precisely where it needs to be. And lastly, you place the final cards on top, being careful not to let the entire tower tumble down in the process.

But, that's not all. Even after you've finished it, your house of cards isn't safe. There's always the risk of someone bumping the table. Or of a breeze coming in from the window. Or of someone walking by too fast. Or of someone turning on the fan.

All one has to do its flip a switch, and a fan have destroy everything you've built.

I like to think of my life like a house of cards.

At times, you just feel so small and weak, like any single thing could cause your entire life to crumble around you. You think there is no possible way you can survive the harsh dangers of the world, with its traitors, liars, and thieves. It's a terrifying prospect, knowing that any person could come along and completely destroy you with a single touch.

And yet, even with all this weakness, there are still those instances when you house of cards achieves the impossible. Someone will bump the table and it will stand firm, or a breeze will make it swang up not fall. There are those times when you stare at your tower, so weak and delicate, and wonder how it can possibly remain standing with the outside forces working against it.

There are always those moment - no matter the person - where you just look at yourself, your brilliant house of cards, and realize the strength behind those thin pieces of paper. While it may not look like a force to be reckoned with, sometimes it can put up a fight that no one could have possibly imagined. How can it still stand when it has been challenged so many times?

Our houses of cards - all our swaying, weak, magnificent feats of gravity - are all really the same, in the end. Weak, delicate, and prone to falling over. Sometimes, you have no choice but to sit down and rebuild your entire like, card by card, memory by shattered memory. There will be times, as you're erecting your tower, that you wonder what the point is, and why you're even trying again. And then, once your house is finally built once again, you a horrible force coming - an enemy, a traitor, a heartbreaker - and you think there is no possible way for you to stand tall when it's all over.

And somehow, in the end, you look up and realize that there it is, your brilliant house of cards.

Weak and strong and beautiful all at the same time.

And sometimes, your tower will come crashing down, and you'll just stare up at the sky and wonder what the point is. You'll want to just give up, because it's only a house of cards, and it will never stand anyway.

But you keep building.

Rebuilding.

You keep rebuilding your house of cards, stronger and stronger, even when someone flips the switch to the fan and devastates everything.

You cry.

You scream at the sky.

You wonder why you even try anymore.

And then, you rebuilt all over again.