Presence

“You didn’t need a savior. You needed evidence that you weren’t alone in the dark.”
~ The Self, Facebook

Few choose to stay when you are at war with yourself or the world, as many find it difficult to reconcile your reality with their idealized version of you. Often, they pretend to stay, out of a sense of guilt or pity, but they are not really there anymore, no longer providing a sense of security that you won’t fall off the cliff of life all alone, with no witness to what happened to you, no validation of your previous existence; their attention redirected elsewhere.

In a sense, it feels like they’ve given up on you, not always consciously or intentionally, but because they decided to change direction, to follow a different or more fulfilling path. It leaves you feeling abandoned, isolated, and without a home, vulnerable to the indifferent forces of a cold, brutal world and universe.

And so your mind fills this vacancy with the illusion of a permanent presence or advocate, watching over you, supporting you and loving you. And like always, you project this imagined presence onto yet another unreliable human being, or something else, such as a god of your choosing. This brings you temporary relief and a return to your bubble of security—your faith in another someone or something—until the vacancy returns once again, by death, tragedy, betrayal, or abandonment.

© 2026 David M. Rubin. All rights reserved.