April 1, 2025

Don't like the rules? Change the game!

The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why. Everyone is born, but not everyone truly lives. Not everyone writes their own unique story, and not everyone knows their 'why'. That 'why' which decides the game of life, of which we will be a part with full fidelity to its rules. But what if fidelity to these rules strips our life of its true essence? Then we are in the wrong game! We do not know our 'why', we do not know ourselves, and we do not act in accordance with our unique identity. We are just players in a pre-lost game. A game whose participation, however, we do not have to accept at all.

My neXt Version 2.0

MXV 2.0 is the absolute most important project of my life, the beginning of which dates back to the time I found my 'why'. Why I am, who I am, who I am not (anymore)... Until then, I was just a sophisticated version that was merely a product of my surroundings, of society. A version that reacted to external changes and ignored its inner calling. I was like an actor whose main role was a character named Michal Maslík. With a name that never belonged to anyone and meant nothing. A name marked by a curse. The one who bears it is condemned to the miserable life of a person who suppresses themselves, their inner feelings, emotions, thoughts, opinions, desires, hardships, and joys; a person without trust, respect, or recognition for themselves; a person shrouded by a shadow cast by the constant fear of the judgments of others.

And I was an excellent actor for this role, for this script written by someone else. I immersed myself so deeply into the character trapped by this cursed script in my own body that I unwittingly became it. That soulless execution of lines and acts, that blind following of the rules of the game, led me into a darkness of illusions, lies, and falseness. For I was never myself, I was never my true, unique, fully authentic version, version 2.0. My next version 2.0, which is no longer swallowed by this darkness, this script, these rules. I no longer want to be an actor in this adaptation, nor a player in this game. I just want to be myself.

A New Direction

Anyone who knew me well as the old version 1.0 registered my transformation with surprise and questions that this is not me. Me, who has something to share, something to say, something to offer, something to experience. The opposite is true, however. This is truly me. These lines are my statement and my testimony that my past was one big lie. A past that I do not deny, however, but accept. Uncovering its darkest corners and hard-to-accept truths is the foundation of MXV 2.0.

The difference between versions 1.0 and 2.0 is colossal. Impressive to the extent that I am writing about it to an audience that is primarily myself. Why? Because this is me. A me that, after so many long years of denying myself, wants to express itself, break free from the shadow of its old personality, be a unique part of the world, and last but not least - live. All these words, however, are publicly accessible, because I identify with everything I have written and no longer have any need to defend myself against or fear their revelation to the world. By doing so, I would fully contradict and reject my authentic life, my new version - MXV 2.0.

Conclusion

The amount of unsaid words, unperformed acts, and unfulfilled desires is too vast, and therefore these are not the final lines. Project MXV 2.0 is complex, it is my life, a new life. My strong passion to say everything, however, must step aside for a moment and make room for words of gratitude. I thank everyone who has touched my life in any way, especially my family and friends, and all those who read to the end. Michal Maslík

One year later: The extreme as a portal to understanding

When I read these lines with the distance of time, I see in them much more than just a naive desire for change. I see in them ground zero – the moment it all started. Project MXV 2.0, with its brutal appeal to authenticity and performance, was precisely the necessary extreme that alone could open my eyes. It is precisely thanks to this radical acceleration, which led me to the very edge, that I first gained the opportunity to look deep into my own depths – into places in my mind and body that would otherwise have remained forever hidden beneath the mask of version 1.0. This project did lead me to a new, toxic chasing of (im)perfection, but that was exactly the portal. Through it, I was able to feel the blade of that second arrow, decode my daily life on debt, and finally piece together the puzzle of my true biological diagnosis. MXV 2.0 was thus not a dead end, but a necessary beginning. It was the truest look in the mirror, which resulted in a general hardware strike and gave rise to the entire Pentalogy of Divided Worlds. Without this extreme 'upgrade', I would never have understood that the real path to oneself does not lead through further performance, but through the absolute laying down of weapons and silence.