“I have the most important things to say hence I speak in short, impactful sentences” said Twinge one sunny morning over Elevenses. Picturemots and Essencia rolled their eyes and looked at each other, Twinge was about to launch into these “short and impactful” monologues like he did every morning. Both of them never really entered into an argument with him but did not care much for him either. After all, he couldn’t paint pictures like them or speak in prose. What would he know of expression?
Expression was an interesting word to pick as they were all in a sense expressions rather than people. You see they were three of the many personalities of Sarcissus. Sarcissus had been split for so long that he could barely remember which one was his main personality. All his personalities had taken on a life and hierarchy of their own and he had now become a collective rather than an individual. The only thing common to all of Sarcissus’s personalities was that they all aimed to generate dependence amongst all those they befriended. Sarcissus’s personalities are immensely smart in that they ensure that we are never bored with talking with them. They lure us with their siren song and readily disappear and appear based on their hold on our senses. You may recognise them as I describe them. If you do, don’t let them know, they have a way of appealing to different qualities within us to keep the relationship going.
Let’s meet the most impactful one first; Twinge. Speaking in short monologues, Twinge is highly dramatic and abrupt. The arrival of Twinge within Sarciccus is as abrupt as the conduct of Twinge itself. Appearing without a moment’s notice, Twinge is a one-way assault on the senses. Oh, you can respond, you most definitely can but it doesn’t mean Twinge is listening or will consider your response when speaking again. Wielding a lot of impact on the listeners, Twinge isn’t such a great listener itself! From the most impactful to the most addictive, Picturemots. Picturemots as the name suggests entices you with words but also paints beautiful pictures. It will draw pictures for you, colour them to make them most appealing and will then match words to them just to pull you closer. You’ll want to sit and watch Picturemots at work all day and will often forget that you need to get on with your own work. Sometimes you will be so taken in by Picturemots that you will ask it to paint a picture of you, you will then spend hours adding words to make your expression most appealing to others and thus days will pass. Picturemots likes to stay immensely active thus you can leave a picture with Picturemots and they will talk about it to people for days on end. Days that will make you feel like an artist but wait until you need to explain to someone what makes you an artist. Essencia comes along next. As her name suggests Essencia is essential, she is who you need to understand the core of the other personalities. Essencia likes to see and keep your photos, she then asks you whether you want to show them to people or just keep them between you and her. She is the one you may like the most as she asks you about your privacy preferences for every picture and every bit of information you share with her. This personality of Sarciccus is the most perilous as it is the most mild-mannered thus encouraging us to stay a while and talk to the others.
The love of Sarcissus is so addictive that no one else will be good enough. In the love that you receive from Twinge, Picturemots and Essencia, the love of your friends will feel severely lacking, sucking you into the quicksand of replacing friends with followers. Some days you might wonder if you would rather have a two-way conversation but after hours of receiving hearts and thumbs-ups, a whole conversation appears to be too much effort. Sarcissus makes us feel warm and fuzzy, improves our non-verbal communication and yet connects us with numerous people, thus making us feel superhuman.
The most fantastic part of it all…….. Sarcissus alters the micro-personality within each of his personalities to give you exactly what you want to hear. Do we realise how invaluable this kind of encouragement is? After all, in a world where it’s each man for himself and the process of growing up involves finding self-worth and validation within yourself, in walks Sarcissus protecting us from ourselves. Sarcissus only shows us what we want to hear and softens the world for us, we need not pay heed to those who tell us we may need to work on certain aspects of ourselves. We do not need to pay attention to those that say that succeeding with Sarcissus does not guarantee succeeding within the physical world. We can choose to completely disregard any such caution or counsel. Any validation we may need is readily available through Sarcissus and our three friends within. Sarciccus offers us a solid friendship and even relays messages to us from other people who want to paint pictures with us, offer us free things and want to tell other people about how amazing we are. Surely this is all the success one needs! Sarcissus is the perfect plus one, just call out to either of their personalities when walking around, eating out alone or even when you want to abruptly terminate an awkward conversation.
By now you may have identified who Sarciccus is and possibly even the three personalities I refer to. Never mind any impression you may have gathered from what I spoke of above, I readily confess that I love Sarciccus and at least two of their personalities. They stand between me and the world like a protective rock and protect my increasingly fragile-self-image. However, it is like befriending a mirror with an enormous stagnating effect on our growth. That is a risk we all readily take and who knows perhaps it really is worth it?