The Law of the Labyrinth

We are born into a labyrinth. How does that theory sound to you?

When a person is born, they find themselves in a labyrinth through which they will have to travel during their lifetime. Moreover, the labyrinth's walls, which confine sometimes narrower, sometimes wider passages, are changeable depending on the years, experience, situation, and so on. I think, at the beginning, they are transparent. The child cannot see themselves, nor others, but sees the light that is beyond the labyrinth's wall. But they already begin to walk - well, perhaps at first to crawl, then to walk.

Then the labyrinth's walls turn into mirrors. We see our parents, our closest people, and begin to copy them, to become like them (whether we want to or not), to follow them at every step, to imitate their movements, their bad habits and good ones. We go where our parents' faces are reflected. Such IS the law of the labyrinth.

Somewhere in the teenage years a person sees their own face in the labyrinth's mirror wall. And then it happens that sometimes they see only themselves. And only themselves - the reflections of parents and loved ones have already faded. Now one wants to turn into all those branches of the labyrinth that parents have not yet entered, or that seem to you they have never entered. That is the time of swift turns, new branches, and energetic striding. Is that the law of the labyrinth?

Later the labyrinth's walls become opaque. A person continues on from memory, from others' accounts, from something read or heard somewhere. Suddenly we remember what parents or teachers told us. We do not see them ourselves, no. In fact we no longer see ourselves either. We have goals and ambitions - career, money, marriage, popularity… Ask anyone, they know which way to go. Moreover, they know best which way the other person should go, rather than themselves. Well, you understand. Straight ahead, then right, then left, then straight - well, I TOLD YOU, you should have turned right first, then left, not the other way around. Everyone is walking and I am walking too. Because such and no other is the LAW OF THE LABYRINTH.

In the labyrinth, a person is not alone. From time to time they meet, collide, bump into someone. That someone scolds, curses, ignores, or embraces, caresses, we laugh together. We also meet the occasional GURU. The guru speaks of the laws of the labyrinth and you become enlightened. But the more enlightened you become, the more you begin to ask yourself - where am I going? What awaits me at the end or the centre (as each prefers)? Somewhere in the subconscious the light glimpsed in the first days of life still lives. But perhaps those are just some kind of illusions?!

A person begins to look around and sees that some have hung mirrors on the opaque labyrinth walls, because they remember well that they once saw themselves reflected. Now one can preen oneself in an elegant suit with branded cufflinks, and another in braces with a golden trim - because somehow the belly that treacherously spills over the waistband must be kept in check. Another's reflection says - for this (reflection), my darlings, I will ask you to pay a great deal. But further on still others constantly turn into the wrong labyrinth passage, each time, walking the same path again, again, and again, coming up against a dead end. Such envy! SUCH is the law of the labyrinth.

It is easier to walk with someone. Or rather, let us say - more interesting. Sometimes when you stumble, they extend a hand, help you get up. That is A LOT. Oh yes, I forgot to mention that the path through the labyrinth is not at all so smooth and the walls not so straight. Sometimes one can quite badly graze the skin on one's elbow if one is not careful at the turns. Only the steps grow slower with time and the turns become harder to navigate. Strength, memory, the reflections of the mirrors hung on the walls leave you. With you remains only YOUR PERSON - or perhaps you are left completely ALONE. Does it matter, if in the end you are just the same, ALONE, face to face with the final wall?! And is there light beyond that wall? But such is the LAW of the labyrinth.