Head in the sand

"Why scream, when you can lose yourself inside the widescreen
Let life be a bowl of melted ice cream
[...]
Go to sleep my little time bomb" - Atmosphere - GodLovesUgly

Burying your head in the sand, ignoring the elephant in the room - the English language isn't short on expressions about choosing to ignore obvious problems or rejecting reality. Their meaning is quite obvious, for example, burying your head in the sand will prevent you from seeing what's happening, but the body is still exposed and will suffer the consequences of whatever is coming. An elephant in the room is quite hard to ignore, considering the size of the average elephant in an average room.

Refusing to deal with the truth seems a pretty silly and eventually purposeless action that we sometimes make. Why do we do it? Everybody has their reasons. Sometimes it's just too much to bear and we look for an escape, not realizing that the so-called escape is only temporary and will ultimately just postpone the inevitable, perhaps even making it worse.

In today's world it's easy to select from a multitude of these escapes, with so much information being available to us at all times, through various channels and mediums. There's no shortage of distractions, and we perpetually look for and create more of them.We are becoming increasingly better at ignoring our inner issues every day and the world's doing a great job helping us do exactly that.

We're also learning to accept failure and mediocrity because of it. This is where the melted ice cream bowl metaphor comes in. It's a symbol for missed opportunity - the delusion that at the end of the day melted ice cream is still something sweet and tasty. But it's not what it used to be, is it? It's not what it could have been. The ice cream was supposed to melt in your mouth, not in front of you while you were busy distracting yourself with TV shows and funny pictures on the internet.

The truth can be buried, it can be manipulated, it can be fought, it can be distorted, but it seems to always come back somehow. And when it comes back, it does so with seemingly increased intensity, because it has a life of its own and it does not enjoy being suppressed.

Accept and deal with your problems now, because the ice cream is melting. Some people are okay with that, but those people have probably not tasted greatness, and chances are they never will. You can choose to swim in the ocean or splash around in your bath tub. One of them is small, safe and warm. The other is vast, potentially dangerous, but ultimately amazing. Go make some waves.