I meet the most amazing people. People who have extraordinary gifts, who delight me with the wisdom and richness of their personalities, who do and are things I wonder at because they are so different from who I am and what I do. I meet these people because they want to know what is wrong with them, why they aren’t what other people say they should be, why they aren’t normal and what they can do to correct the problem. :/
Our culture today has a Rudolph Rule to it that says you are broken if you don’t conform. And conforming is about fitting into the economic social sphere because community and community values is a frayed and worn out thing which holds very little sway except in online groups and social media. So conform and if you can’t conform, be prepared to suffer. I meet people who see the truth of people, of situations, of buildings and areas and they are ridiculed at the least, sometimes committed as mentally unstable or ill because they can’t make what they see fit into “reality.” I meet others whose emotional vocabulary and dexterity is so vast that they live in a symphony of expression and empathy and are therefore thought of as weak and flaky and barely competent to hold down a job. Yet they are some of the most adept at holistic healing.
The Rudolph Rule says that anyone who is different is wrong or broken and needs to be corrected, like Hermie, like Rudolph, like all of the toys on the Island of Misfit Toys. Many people believe this to be true and live in unhappiness and misery like Hermie, believing what they are told, that it is their fault that they can’t be and do what they should. They go through life grinding away at things which they hate, living in a level of unnecessary misery. Unnecessary because the rule is a lie. Those who are different aren’t wrong or broken or in need of being medicated or retrained or restrained or fixed. They are not only perfect the way they are, but there is a purpose for who they are and what they can do. Shrugging off the opinions of society isn’t easy, but it may be necessary in order to experience our unique truth.