(Reading time: 200 words, 1 minute)

I've always seen beauty in darkness, and for whatever reason that seems to bother some people.

I don't know if it scares them or what. I just know the looks I get, and they suggest that I'm odd, uncouth, or depraved. And I am. I'm all those things and more. 

Some things in this world are obviously beautiful. Other things are ostensibly ugly—until you look closer. I guess that's why I appreciate the dark side—because I've looked in. I wish everyone would. I think doing so can make us better humans. Deeper, anyway.

But I recognize not everyone's wired this way. Some are afraid to confront their darkness. Others perhaps are truly unable. Or maybe I'm the one who's full of fear, always running toward dark corners, too afraid to face the world as it is.

At any rate, I believe it's not our darkness that haunts us; it's the barrier we set against it.

What do you think? Should we closet our darkness? How do you navigate your abysses?