The Shape-Shifter inside...YOU

It is a low crawler, black and shiny. Its clusters of red eyes across its back and underside flash in every direction, looking for more to snatch up with its hairy, arachnid-like legs. If dinner-plate spiders make your skin crawl, then a glance at this creature should make you run in terror. With its slithery tongue licking up all in its path into its flashing jaws, it skitters around: shrinking and growing to fill every space it can. The only time it momentarily spares a victim is when it knows there is gain to waiting; perhaps a juicy bribe or two before the ultimate deadly feast.

If “selfishness” were a “thing,” I’m pretty sure I could point it out. Perhaps I can see the reader squinting their eyes at me in disbelief with the thought bubble overhead, "A bit dramatic, donchta think?" All I have to say is, "Think deeper, and remember your own experience."

It doesn’t just destroy people, lives, property, and time itself; it can hide inside of a person. Shape-shifting into your own likeness, it is as if you step back and watch it push and shove your loved ones, throwing them against the walls with the breathe of cruel words. Often, it will live in your body using you as a weapon to drag out a painful death to your closest relationships. It’s the invader manipulating for short term gains by backstabbing, ignoring, and cutting off even accidental offenders. As if it could be worse, your own mind becomes effected. You begin to believe the subtleties it whispers to control you, “You know best. You are the best. In fact, you deserve everything that you can possibly get."

Thankfully, there is a way to kill the creature inside. Like taking an anti-parasitic drug, it’s painful, difficult, and nauseating to wipe out the creature inside. Dying to yourself must be done, before the real you is killed along with the people around you. Indeed, selfishness is a fierce adversary to overcome with kindness, letting go of "control," and recognizing the value of every human through your reponses. But, what choice do you have, really?