Stained Glass Personality

"People are like stained glass windows: they sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light within." - Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Can you ever really know the true nature of another person? How can we understand what has shaped their being, what experiences have impacted them during their lifetime? Even when we think we know what someone is like we can be shocked to find out what really lies below the facades of human beings. 

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross expressed this quandary eloquently in the above quote, but I would expand a bit on it. It is not just the light within that is revealed, but it is the absence of a light, a darkness that may exist. That darkness is more of what I fear than any type of light. I know that there exists both light and dark inside of me and to admit to that allows me to understand it better. If someone is going to do any type of harm to someone I love, an innocent or a defenseless person, and I can prevent it, I would not hesitate to use the darkness inside me against them. That can be a mean, dark sonsofbitch.

I often wonder also if this is a social issue. We look at the celebrities and sports heroes, in their attire that "sparkle and shine" on courts, fields, runways, red carpets, movie sets and other places they are captured at by the media and paparazzi, and usually we are left with a positive impression. Our military leaders sparkle with medals on uniforms braided with gold epaulets, for campaigns that don't quite sparkle when examined closely.

The political climate these days seems strangely lit, represented rather than by casting light on issues and problems, it is focused on that underlying darkness, that shadow of all things that are back lit by the sun.

Consequently, it is making even kind and gentle people just a tad bit angry and mean, like wounded beasts. 

Perhaps it would be good advice if the gloating stopped and the waving of red flags in the face ceased and the wounded would get a little time to lick their wounds and begin to heal. They will be far better in the fight when they are healed.