Opening Your Heart

I recently finished reading Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. There was a scene at the beginning of the novel that captured my attention. "I returned the miniature, wondering what in the world had made him open his heart to me. That was something I never did; it was dangerous. First it was dangerous if you felt like that about anything, because then you'd never get it or something or someone would take it away from you; then it was dangerous because nobody would understand you and they'd only laugh and think you were crazy" (p. 43). There's a lot of truth to the statement that if and when we open our heart to someone it is very dangerous. It's dangerous because we make ourselves vulnerable to someone else. We essentially say to them, "Here is my heart, take it and stomp on it if you want to." Of course our hope is that they will be warm and accepting, but we aren't guaranteed that. I always tell people to guard their hearts from everyone but the lover of our souls and hearts. The only problem is that to have relationships with people we have to open our hearts enough to let them in. This dilemma leaves us susceptible to being hurt, but it seems like the only way to truly be human.