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What’s 3 feet tall, and dreams of wrapping his muscles around your throat? No, I’m not talking about Dr. Evils clone mini-me. I’m talking about the popular house hold pet, the ball python. Yeah, I had one of these guys a few years back(and ladies, I do not have him anymore). I’m not exactly sure of what possessed me to take this from a friend of mine who was moving and couldn’t keep pets any longer. Call it a deep seated need to feel dangerous and on the edge . It just seemed like something different to try at the time. I definitely wasn’t a huge snake aficionado. His name was Machiavelli(yes I was a 2pac fan at the time) and we became fast friends…well kind off…Anyways, I digress.

Machiavelli was unpredictable. Once he escaped out of his cage, and my roommates and I couldn’t find him for 2 months(that’s another story). There is one thing that he did do consistently(besides crap & eat rats), and it always struck me as completely disgusting, but somewhat interesting. About once a month, Machiavelli would shed his skin. Yes, completely crawl out of his existing skin(check out a video of a snake doing this here). Now this process takes some time, and it takes a lot of energy out of the snake. After awhile I could begin to tell when he was getting ready to shed. He would be a little more lethargic, and his skin would gradually begin to get cloudy. Once the process was complete, Machiavelli’s skin would be shinny, and he’d be ready to gobble up some food.

I haven’t had Machiavelli for a few years now, but that image of peeling skin has stuck with me. Sometimes I’ll do a little introspection, and look around my room, my life, my job, my religious experience, and I’ll see things, that are parts of who I used to be years ago. Parts of me, that even though I’ve outgrown, they still are visible, and need to be shed. Today in particular, I was laying down after work(decompressing), and I realized how easy it is to live a life that you thought was for you. Like studying in a major that you feel will pay you well, but don’t really enjoy. Or working in a profession solely to pay the bills, or for some perceived financial benefit.

I think one’s religious life reveals this tension as well. I find myself struggling between the messages I’ve received all my life, and the ones that I have begun to develop and own for myself. I’d like to think I’m an independent thinker, and critical soul. But there are still aspects to my life that are simply not who I know I am becoming. Still unquestioning and assuming traditional forces.  And then it dawns on you, that all this time, you’ve been carrying around dead weight. An old version of yourself, that wasn’t even the true, updated, or enlightened you. Maybe you can relate.

One last thing about snakes. They go all the way. Unlike their reptilian friends, snakes shed their entire skin, while other reptiles sometimes, shed parts of there skin at a time. Maybe you’re not the radical type, and you prefer to take change slowly. Either way, I recommend that every now and again we take a good, honest look at our lives, and decide if it isn’t high time for some shedding of the old. Come on be honest, who really likes dead, flaky skin anyway?