"The fiction that we live"

“The fiction that we live”, this was part of someones writing on their “canvas” aka body art and it inspired something in me because it rang true, most times we live this lie that we perpertrate for our own protection or to hide out from ourselves and others until we believe in it so much that we forget its fiction!
We all believe in many different things but we choose to fight for those that we passionately believe in. When it comes to God and family, friends and those issues that touch us to the core, we fight like a lioness protecting her cub. Is it true that if you don’t stand for something you will fall for anything?
Everything in moderation of course, even passion and belief otherwise we become fanatics and no obsession is healthy!
I don’t believe in anyone being a matyr, shouldn’t you stay alive so that your cause actually has a voice? Dying is a cope out, people left behind, now, focus on you and most times on your life or lose of life and often forget what it was you died for. Don’t get me wrong, there are causes out there that are worthy but if every one matyrs themselves, then we have no soldiers or warriors left to fight the battle. Isn’t better to live for a cause rather than die for it? I do understand that sometimes, there is no choice but death!
Sometimes your comrades and loved one will try to stand in your place but often times they are not as passionate as you were or their passion is short lived since its driven by the loss they experienced by losing you. Time passes and the hollow parts left in our lives never completely fill up again but it does change that sharp edge of grief and as much as we don’t want to accept, it kind of dulls it!
There are certain circumstances in life that push us to stand up for what we believe in, instead of being confidently quiet when the hornet’s nest is stirred we acquire a voice and get loud until the waters are calm again. Sometimes people push us to that edge without realizing that their words are the driving force and certain actions pushed the button and hence cannot be ignored.
No one can steal your faith, what you believe is yours to keep, defend and fight for if necessary, sure faith in certain things can change but its your choice, when you are forced then what you believe deep within still stays. I will never forget an example I read in a parenting book when I was barely ten. (I wanted to know what my parents were reading :-). It gave an example of a disobedient boy that would get beaten by the mother if he didn’t listen and do as she said. So one time she was yelling at him to sit down, he did sit but in his head & heart, he was still standing and that wasn’t obedience according to the author, that was just agreeing with his mother to avoid the beatdown that was sure to come!. That was pretty powerful to me and made me realize that sometimes people do certain things because they are expected to, that doesn’t mean that they believe those things. Its contradictory because most times we are judged by our actions but there are those exceptions where the actions are the result of things that we don’t even understand or how we got to that point is a mystery to us!
Does what you say under pressure change what you feel and believe?
Where is our courage, conviction and integrity?