“He who is not a good servant will not be a good master” ~Plato

October 28th, 2011

I found this quote today and I think in just a few short words it tells us something of what it means to be a switch.

I have often heard over the years from people that in order for a dominant person to be excellent at what they do, they need to personally feel whatever it is they are going to do to their submissive. Does this make them a switch? no. Can they feel what their submissive is going to feel? In the physical sense, yes absolutely. Mentally? I think not. I do not think anyone who claims 100% one label or the other can ever truly feel how someone in the opposing position feels. I am absolutely not trying to discredit how those people feel or saying that they are wrong, however, we are, after all, here to learn and read about the switch nature!

As a switch I do truly feel, physically and mentally, what a 100% submissive or dominant feels in their position. I run the entire gauntlet of emotions and thought processes. When I am submitting or even just bottoming for a scene I am fully immersed in the position. I truly have the desire to make my top or dominant happy. The same goes for the opposite position. Not only do I become fully entrenched in the position but whatever position I take I feel empathy. I have a deeper knowledge of what my gift of submission or dominance means to the other person. My empathy quite possibly allows me to take a step further into whichever head space I am currently occupying. When I’m creating reaction because of something I am doing to the physical body, I empathize and oh does the sadist come out and play even harder. The empathy I feel when I’m receiving physical sensations pushes me even harder to take them because I know on a much deeper level just how much joy that person takes in giving.

So I say, Plato made an excellent observation.