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Funnily enough a lot of people I know who are outstanding in their own way, creative, overly intelligent, non-conformists seem to feel there is something wrong with them, that they are the odd ones out.
I admit there have been times when I thought life would have been much easier if I could be happy following the herd, doing the same as everyone else, enjoying the simple commercialised past times of everyone else, 9am to 5pm in a job I fell into for 40 years then retiring to 'enjoy' my retirement, old age and lack of health.
But I can't do that, and many people I know also do not fit into the 'accepted' social format, a lot of these people I have noticed feel like social outcasts....
Some live in areas where there are enough of these lonely society 'misfits' to form their own societies, some are lucky enough to migrate to an area that is more suitable and less misplaced for them.
For me having moved to Bondi Beach, Sydney from Newcastle was the first big move for me and led me to live amongst more like minded people, a progressive younger crowd that inhabits this area of Australia, for the first time I really felt like I fit in. So many other 'weird' people running around having fun doing thier thing and no one judging or making trouble about the way they lived their lives.
Unfortunately I get emails from people who live in small towns and though I do not know them well enough to make the judgement that they are lonely, in many cases I guess this is the truth.
Not so much lonely as alone, no real friends, no one they can really talk or relate to.
But deep down do you want to be one of the herd, mindlessly consuming, following the advice on how to live given freely by TV adverts, wearing this season's latest fashions and following the latest fads because it is what is done....
Or do you want to be yourself? Live happily a life that is not a continual lie, do what you want to do and be the person that you are but there is a small price for this happiness and that is that you will feel alone at times.
This has been written about by a fellow much better known than I, and I would like to leave you with a quote from him:
"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being
overwhelmed by the tribe. To be your own man is hard business. If you
try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no
price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself."
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
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