Who's afraid of the dark?

I’ve often described myself as having an exuberant and undiminished “joie de cynicism.” People immediately assume that means I’m a “negative person;” they’re wrong.
A life based on wholeness is about the tension of the balance of opposites; the contradictions of human nature. You can’t have light without darkness; a positive charge without a negative charge; systolic without diastolic; birth without death; joy without suffering; the sweet without the bitter.
People who focus only on the positive are just as impaired as those who dwell in perpetual negativity. One cannot lead a whole life without acknowledging the dark. It exists and it’s everywhere, even within you. What you do with it is a personal choice. This is key.
Some insist upon believing in and living a “fairy tale.” Ironically, what they don’t realize is that they are living a fairy tale. Before Walt Disney effectively rewrote the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen, fairy tales were, well, grim.
If you read fairy tales in their original form, they confront very real and very dark issues. “Cinderella” isn’t about meeting Prince Charming, it’s about childhood bereavement.
Everyone is capable of tremendous good and tremendous evil. Many individuals disavow the parts of themselves they don’t like. They deny these aspects exist or suppress them. Going ostrich isn’t viable long term. Just because you don’t want to acknowledge something doesn’t negate the reality of its existence. In fact, the more you deny them, the more likely you are to blindly act them out, become possessed by them, and/or beat yourself up for having them.
We all have slimy little underbellies, things we wish were different about ourselves. The qualities we don’t like are just as valuable and just as much a part of us as the qualities we like. Until you accept them, you’ll forever waste energy fighting them or denying them. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather devote my time and energy toward more pleasurable pursuits and things I can change rather than disown (which you can never really do anyway).
Nobody is perfect. Deal with it. That doesn’t mean you can’t work on the things you don’t like. You can become more aware, you can practice patience, you can recognize when you’re doing whatever “it” is – being critical, jealous, quick-tempered. None of these qualities are bad; they’re natural to the human condition. Anything can become a strength depending upon what you do with it.