Open Wounds

It is without question that through living, through the times, through history, we get wounded. Historically, as a country a battle is lost, a war is lost, a rebellion is squashed, we are conquered, our lands get invaded or taken away or our allies betray us, among many other chances. Personally, we can experience justice to be taken away from us, we can get heartbroken, humiliated, rejected, robbed, deprived, exploited, abused... and these things leave wound, maybe even very deep wounds in us. It is natural for us to be wrapped in hurt and mourning for the pain inflicted, and even after it has been terminated, for a while we still shake and need to recover from the blow.

This time varies depending on many things, but above all depending on ourselves. Our wounds, national and personal, physical and emotional, need to be aired, mourned, washed clean with tears and let the process of scarring and healing take place. Scars - however small or big - are expected to be left behind - particularly in the case of emotional wounds, as these scars represent the memory of what happened, connect tissue to emotion and memory so we always remember what it was like and learn from the experience. This is good, this is wholesome, as with each heartbreak we survive we get stronger and wiser in order not only to face the next one, but also to start the next relationship. With each disappointment, we learn how to handle and possibly prevent the next one.

It happens, however, that sometimes some wounds are not allowed to heal, and are constantly ripped open, left open and scratched, stirred to keep them bleeding even risking infection, poisoning and rotting. Even if that risks an emotional gangrene and the amputation of the emotional limb, the connection. This can happen both because the wounded person refuses to move on, and though can't turn the clock back to the previous state, rather remain in the last bit of it, even if that means pain, but also by a third party that seeks to manipulate through pain.

You may know this kind of people, these are those "friends" who constantly remind you things that make you upset, sad or hurt. The people who won't let go of your mistakes, and keep rubbing your flaws in your face at every given chance. People also that keep refreshing your mourning and memories of a very sad event or situation. These people are toxic for you and either openly or in a veiled fashion, consciously or unconsciously, try to harm you. Either out of jealousy, our out of resentment because you've surpassed a stage they weren't so successful at passing, they seek to drag others down, rob away their happiness and make sure others or a particular person is as miserable as they themselves actually feel.

It's sad to realize that we are not only surrounded by toxic people in our personal lives, who seek to keep our wounds open, but so it happens that nationally we are also ruled by people who dig the nation's wounds to open them, rip them bloody, so that the nation can be manipulated, cheated, lead on without realizing where things are taking them. Those who take an invasion and justify it by ripping open wounds - real or fictional, factual or embellished, magnified - about past affronts and loss of territory, or even under the excuse of "freedom", "liberation" and "national duty to protect the weak".

Wounds ripped open about the past, to generate a fake, overzealous national feeling, direct the attention to imaginary or overly inflated foreign threaths while ignoring the internal corruption and the opressing of the people by the very hands of their own.

Wounds must be let scarred, their mourning time must be over and we ourselves must learn to move on. Not to forget - never that - but to stop being the slaves of our pain and our past.