Dear Daughter and/or Son,
I thought it is very important to sit down right this minute and write you this letter. To be honest, I think this is entirely made up of wishful thinking and that I would never have kids, so if you exist and you’re there, please do know that you are the thing I dreamed and mesmerised about the most and that I’m unbelievingly lucky to have you in my life.
Today I want to let you in on a trick or two that humans use to control others. I’m in a rare moment of awareness of those two tricks, having seen them a moment ago not only being launched against me but also felt their success in entering into the inner chambers of my heart and implanting their seeds of terror.
I want to tell you about those tricks so that one day when and if I use them against you, you could wave this letter in front of my eyes and tell me wrong move.
It’s important to have this written down so that even if I’m long gone, you’d have a reminder that forbids you from allowing those seeds to take control of your system.
The first trick is called Guilt. Maybe you wouldn’t recognise it at first encounter, but if I use it time and again against you and you start to wrestle with a hidden yet tangible sense of responsibility towards myself and my needs, it would be too late for you to pull out so beware.
If it does take hold, it would be very difficult to let it go away.
If it does take hold, this letter is an eternal acknowledgement that you have no responsibility towards fulfilling my needs, and that you are born a free soul and you need to exercise such freedom.
And my second lethal weapon is called Fear. Sometimes I would use it on its own, but it works better if mixed with Guilt to create a compound toxic enough to prevent your soul from ever staying still.
Here’s the thing, if at this point in time I am a dad, naturally I would fear for you.
And while yes, a healthy dose of fear is acceptable and necessary for survival, truth of the matter is your old man has gone through a lot of experiences in his life that made his sense of fear more heightened than what is deemed acceptable.
Should that be your responsibility to appease the anxiety that were found in my being long before you were born?
Should my experience in life and my limited knowledge merit that I declare it anathema for you to go through the same process that I have gone through and perhaps even receive the same blows?
No, it definitely shouldn’t.
You were born free, my child. I was only declared a custodian to your growing soul for a few years but your meanderings are a call from heaven that only you should answer.
Your tantrums to my controlling you through fear are annoying, but are very necessary and acceptable.
My Dear Inner Child (no, not you kids), all of the above is also addressed to you.
Love,