Weak: From Abstract To Concrete
Weak. It is a word associated with an image. When I use it, I think of someone hardened by experience. Someone who has learned that to appear vulnerable is to appear “weak”, so they never do. In my image, a girl like this gazes dispassionately, disgustedly, and cold-heartedly at another girl. This other girl is curled up into a ball, as though trying to hold herself together. She sobs; racking, wrenching sobs they seam to rip and claw their way out of her throat. They are both on stairwell. The first one is standing a few steps up from the second girl and looking down on her, as the strong often look down on the weak. Is my perspective then that weakness is indulging in emotions? And strength comes from hiding those emotions from everyone, including yourself? No. Emotions do not make you weak; neither do they make you strong. They are simply part of being human.
If you were to consult a dictionary, you would find the word weakness listed as another form of the word weak, but they’re not the same thing. In fact, they are very different.
Everyone has a weakness. That is an integral part of humanity. Having a weakness does not make you weak. If that were the case, my entire essay would end up arguing that the human race is just a bunch of weak, sniveling cowards; which couldn’t be further from the truth. What makes you weak is succumbing to your weakness, instead of taking action against it.
If that is my definition of weak, then my image is not a sample of weakness and strength; but two contrasting examples of weakness. The first character has given up, that is why she is crying. Her weakness then, is either that she lacks perseverance or that she lacks the ability to hold on to hope and determination when times become difficult. The second character is not able to retain her humanity and compassion in the face of a harsh and often cruel reality. Each has a weakness; and each becomes weak because they do not fight, they simply give in.
I’ve already stated that everyone has a weakness. Though perhaps I shouldn’t say weakness so much as weaknesses. No one has just one, but rather an accountable amount. These numerous weaknesses are difficult to detect, however. Sometimes, detecting them is hardly short of impossible.
When I look at weak’s opposite, strong, I get words like courage, bravery and power. By definition then, powerful is the opposite of weak, but this is false. The lust for power is mankind’s greatest weakness. As soon as person indulges in that greed, they have revealed that they are too feeble to with stand the temptation of power. They become weak because they stop resisting their own lustful desires. In that sense, some of the most powerful people in the world have also been its weakest.
That is not implying that power is a weakness. Like emotion, having power does not make you weak or strong, it is simply a result of either. As I examine the world and myself, I find that there are so many weaknesses that have not; that I have not even recognized, let alone fought. To be weak is to give up hope for a better future for both yourself and society. To be weak means that you believe that things cannot change, that people cannot change, and that you cannot change. You will accept things as they are instead of fighting to make a better world, and consequently, a better you.
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