Variations on the Thematic Material

 Some people change over time.
Some people don't. 
Some people think they have,
But they're really just the needle
Skipping on a defect in the spiraling groove.
Reliving their traumas
And re-enacting their original pain.
Stale re-mixes of what they once were.
The beat goes on indefinitely.
The beatings still fresh in their mind.
*
Some people grow past their limitations.
Some people don't.
Living out their entire lives
In the cage that they have created. 
Struggling in the web of misperception
They've woven on their loom.
Intricate interlocking patterns 
On display through a two-way mirror.
They can't see out,
But on-lookers gawk as they pass by
The Spectacle,
Shielding their children's eyes.
*
Some people fight hard
To break free,
Put up a heroic effort
To shed an exoskeleton 
That has been outgrown.
It's a process that will have to be repeated,
Another shell will harden
That needs further struggle to escape.
Another paradigm will form
That will eventually need to be split.
And...
Some people don't.
They suffocate in the beliefs that they hold.
Starve themselves 
So that the shell will still fit.
Resisting out of fear
That the soft new body
Will leave them open to predation.
*
Some people shed their old skin
And leave it hanging in the past.
A memory of old colors 
Now faded and transparent.
Left behind to decompose
As fertilizer for new life.
Some don't.
The old skin making their eyes
Milky opaque.
Refusing to scrape past jagged rocks
That could free them from their bondage
For fear they'll be hurt again.
Sliced and cut,
The memories of distant bleeding
Still fresh in their congestive heart.
*
Some people leave themselves 
Open to change...
Either cautiously venturing out
Into new experiences,
Or diving head first into
New ways of thinking.
Others won't believe you have an open mind
Unless you agree with them,
As if disunity with their worldview
Means you are nothing
But a hallway of locked doors...
Spirited, healthy debate
Seen as an affront to their
Sense of self,
An insult cast at their core identity.
*
Battle scars are a mark of wisdom.
They'll remain even when the old life
Is abandoned,
But they need not be enshrined
On an altar...
Fatted calves need not be sacrificed
In their honor...
Golden idols need not be cast
In their likeness...