“Nobody can save you but yourself—and you’re worth saving. It’s a war not easily won, but if anything is worth winning—this is it.”
— Charles Bukowski
We all have unique ideas and perspectives. Some of us hide them even from ourselves and so live half a life always trying to make ourselves into either an amorphous society’s view of what a ‘normal’ person should be or they fixate on one path and try to force themselves into someone else’s mold. In either case they become somewhat akin to a zombie living half a life at most.
There are others who find it impossible to fit in. Their perspective is so unique and their ability to masque some of the more aberrant parts of themselves so limited that they are seen as at best odd and at worst insane. Life can be hellish for those who live in a society that increasingly focuses on hammering down the nail that stands out.
There is a third way tho. It involves holding onto one’s madness and what makes them unique yet learn and follow enough of the mores of the people surrounding them that they can mimic it when they have to. To the person who can do this well, all doors are open. At any given point they can discern how much of their true selves to show and how much of a masque to wear. This discernment can be learned by anyone who is both bold enough to do it and perceptive enough to see the value in it. For those who lack the courage choose the Zombie path while those who lack the motivation or discernment are stuck forever outside looking in.
Blessings, G
“Plant a garden in which strange plants grow and mysteries bloom.”
― Ken Kesey
Lose your fear of being different
Dance to your drummer’s beat
no matter how different and strange.
Live in the garden of your own design
and nourish the plants that no one has seen before
Let them grow wild and free
as your dreams dark and mysterious.
Be concerned only with the ways you conform
that are not you.
The things you are for others
that are not your true self.
Those are the weeds in your garden.
Roll naked in your tall grasses
and invite others to make love under your stars
Embrace your strange universe
in the knowledge it is singular
Feel the joy of who you are.
— G A Rosenberg
“That proves you are unusual,’ returned the Scarecrow; ‘and I am convinced that the only people worthy of consideration in this world are the unusual ones. For the common folks are like the leaves of a tree, and live and die unnoticed.”
― L. Frank Baum
Alike in our differences
delight in them
yet inside regret at separation..
We stand out and know
no hammer that can force our fit
We’d break before that
yet many hammers have broke before me
and many more to come
— GAR
I have known many people who try to fit in with the norm. They attempt the facade of the trendy or the conservative in their actions, views and words. Yet talk to anyone for long enough and you can see past their image and into their heart and that whether it be in secret love, fetish or thought that they are unique and to be treasured. Most people are worth the effort of getting to know that well tho some make it more difficult than others to be sure
Blessings, G
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They Talked Until Morning About Many Things by G A Rosenberg
“The first and most important thing an individual can do is to become an individual again, decontrol himself, train himself as to what is going on and win back as much independent ground for himself as possible”
― William S. Burroughs
Listen, do you hear them? Can you hear those well-meaning voices telling you how you should do what you’re doing or not to do it at all or perhaps what you should be doing instead? After all don’t you want to fit in? Don’t you want the acceptance of others? I once worked with a woman who told me that she believed that whatever society deemed proper she would do. If everybody rubbed blue mud in their navels, then she would to. I didn’t appreciate at the time the ironically unique illustration for her philosophy that she chose. Instead her lectures on propriety made me dress and act even more outré or at least as much as I could get away with without losing my job. Gradually I came to realize that if everything I did was an act of rebellion than nothing was. Rather than being an individual I was an anti-robot reacting against conformity and thus conforming to its opposite. Being an individual means considering everything and choosing what reflects myself regardless of how society sees it.
Blessings, G
Flowing Towards Moonlight by G A Rosenberg 
Odd Still Life by G A Rosenberg 
