Hillary Clinton's social media tweeted "Delete your account" to Donald Trump, knowing that Clinton herself deleted her emails during the server scandal (or so they say). It got me thinking about how there's something strangely pedagogical about irony. It makes us look like fools when it happens, but it brings to light our hypocrisy.
So, I write publicly to this blog, because I became intrigued with translating thought into writing. This blog gives me a space to share my thoughts and to be transparent about myself. I thought it would help others understand me better as well. Except, I hesitated because I was afraid of exposing myself. I knew there would come a time where I would have to reveal things about myself that make my teeth clench and eyes close. I've heard it explained perfectly as standing naked in front of a crowd - uncomfortable and welcoming judgment. I was concerned that I would revert to my tendency to evade honesty and truth. It's my conditioned inclination to hide things I don't want to be seen.
For example, it's not very hard for me to create a story or an image of myself to the public eye that diverts their attention away from my actual self. But there reveals the irony of it all. This blog is supposed to be about authenticity/translucency/courage, but instead, if I fabricated all that content in fear of overexposure, then I'm only doing the opposite. Kind of foolish, no? The discrepancy between my intended purpose for this blog and my actual actions accentuates how consciously afraid I am of vulnerability. So afraid that I needed to appear vulnerable to onlookers so that I didn't have to actually be vulnerable. When that thought came to me, I couldn't believe I was doing it. (I'll skip the vitamins today. There's no deficiency of irony here)
What kind of insight can we gain from this? Irony seems to happen when you are oblivious to your own hypocrisy. For me, I'm writing this blog, because I want to be comfortable in my own skin and show people who I am through writing. But, I have to be careful about my hidden personal desire to appear a certain way to my readers. I have to be truthful, and I have to face my insecurities even if it means changing the way people think about me. In the end, this is therapy for me and if I can't do it correctly, why feed to my mental sickness?
There are plenty examples of irony out there in the world. So, search for them, pay attention to them and don't be fooled. Use it to heighten the awareness of your true desires.
