I’m the guy who doesn’t really fit in anywhere, the one kinda set apart from the crowd. By my choice? By their choice? By a chance? Probably a combination.
One of the things I’ve come to realize is that everybody wants to be in a crowd, myself included. I want to be around great people, want to share companionship, learn and be listened to, to help and to be helped, within this World. I want to steal dreams from the jaws of disaster, snatch perhaps a few minutes or months at a time feeling happy, at peace and fulfilled.
But I’ve also learnt, the hard way, that that’s not everything. Be part of that house, by all means, but if you’re a door, don’t try to pretend you’re a window. If you’re a gutter, don’t try to blend in with the chimney.
Whatever you are, remember it, and whatever you do, don’t ever fall into the trap of simply describing yourself as nothing more than just another part of the house. You’re the window,not just ‘the thing above the doormat’, or the thing ‘just left of the front window’. Be part of something big, be part of a group, be part of something absolutely fucking amazing- but define yourself, know what you are and what your role is. Don’t let the group define you.
A few other fortune cookies of wisdom: Don’t try to be happy, in fact, do something that makes you bloody unhappy if, nonetheless you know that its the right thing to do. Spend your life looking for hapiness, and you’re the rabid dog chasing its tail- hapiness follows you, not by standing still, but by chosing your next fight, your next goal, finding your own way through things.
Sometimes, that means standing on the margins, making yourself unpopular, saying what people need to hear but don’t want to know, and accepting a beating for it. I want to be a seperate voice, anchored to unshakable things, not just roped up to the big fat inflatable lilo of humanity filled with hot air, drifting about on the sea of life.
And then when you’ve got that kind of security, you can use it for all kinds of things. You can be a kind of lighthouse, helping others steer away from the rocks and doing stupid stuff. Obviously, they’ve got to be the ones doing the steering, but you might be useful to navigate. Equally so, when people fall overboard, a lighthouse is a great place to haul them out of the sea, dry them off, give them a bite to eat and hear their stories…..so that’s the gameplan, folks
