Jim Morrison pointed out that a spectator requires art in order to be a spectator, while art does not require an audience in order to be art. He uses the example of film to illustrate this point – a film will continue to run regardless of whether or not anyone is present to watch it. Why don’t people use that sort of logic when they contemplate their own self-worth? I certainly don’t ask anyone for validation when I claim that I own the universe. I don’t need anyone else’s opinion in order to be the most beautiful thing in the universe. Why don’t parents teach their children how to fly anymore? Why is it so difficult for people to realise that they are art, why is it so painful for them to discover that they don’t need to waste their energy searching for an audience in order to simply be themselves? What is it about being alone in a dark room that’s so terrifying? Why does ‘being oneself’ seem to require so much courage?

This country is full of lost scared people, this society teaches people to be afraid, this world needs to be reconstructed. Humans fill their lives with unnecessary struggle. I see beautiful people all around me that don’t know how to be beautiful. As though it’s some sort of skill they lack, as though it’s not innate, as though the light that radiates from human skin is an optical illusion, not a real phenomenon that has no need whatsoever for anyone to view.

I have a friend who should, like me, be dancing and rejoicing at all his accomplishments and revelling in his surroundings and falling in love with his own face and turning his thoughts into music. But he’s afraid to be or not to be himself. And all he offers are excuses.

But really, there’s no excuse.

There’s something wrong. And it makes my heart hurt. If you’re like my friend, there’s no excuse for you either. Art doesn’t have to learn to be art. You don’t need to figure out how to be yourself – just realize that you ARE yourself and you ARE beautiful. It’s that simple.