What am I?

I am a guardian that sits in every household

Very quiet, yet very powerful

A glance at me, sends a shooting tension down your spine
A glance at me, sends a pair of legs running towards the door
A glance at me, and the breath is held, in mid-air

I am the reason the mother frowns her eyebrows and raises her voice at her children in the morning.

I am the reason the children are tormented in their classrooms, their imagination boxed, their joy kidnapped, their creativity held fugitive.
Yet, they also look at me hungrily, eagerly, their only ray of hope.

I am the boss in the workplace. I am the reason people drag themselves outside of bed to come to work.
It is also me, who gives them permission to leave.

I am the reason a party ends, even though people are having fun
I am the reason why the partner is angry, even when the spouse returns home in the evening
I am the reason a lover leaves the room, even though the other looks at them with longing eyes

“What do you guard, that makes you so powerful?”

“I don’t know.”

“What does it look like? What does it smell like? What does it feel like, to hold it?”

I smile, for this has also puzzled me for a while:

“You can’t see it, you can’t touch it, you can’t smell it. It doesn’t exist.
Human beings decided to make it up,
They gave it to me,
And then they just submitted themselves to me.”

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