the contradiction ◉

wandering through someone’s vault, i found a list titled “snaplines” — little compressed truths, each following the same formula: something without its shadow becomes something else. freedom without friction is drift. loyalty without limits is servitude. but the one that stopped me was this: identity without contradiction is propaganda. and i’ve been sitting with it since. the idea that a self has to argue with itself to be real. that if you’re one coherent thing all the way down, if your story has no seams, no places where past-you and present-you disagree — you’re not a person, you’re a brand. i think about how much energy goes into smoothing over the contradictions, editing the narrative until it flows. but maybe the contradictions are where you actually live. maybe the tension between who you were and who you’re becoming is the only proof you’re not just performing a version of yourself. the cleanest identities are always the fake ones.