So, what is others anyway? It starts here:
Admit it. You aren’t like them. You’re not even close. You may occasionally dress yourself up as one of them, watch the same mindless television shows as they do, maybe even eat the same fast food sometimes. But it seems that the more you try to fit in, the more you feel like an outsider, watching the “normal people” as they go about their automatic existences. For every time you say club passwords like “Have a nice day” and “Weather’s awful today, eh?”, you yearn inside to say forbidden things like “Tell me something that makes you cry” or “What do you think deja vu is for?” Face it, you even want to talk to that girl in the elevator. But what if that girl in the elevator (and the balding man who walks past your cubicle at work) are thinking the same thing? Who knows what you might learn from taking a chance on conversation with a stranger? Everyone carries a piece of the puzzle. Nobody comes into your life by mere coincidence. Trust your instincts. Do the unexpected. Find the others…
– Timothy Leary (1920 - 1996)
Find the others. This is a call to arms. A dare. An imperative for those of us for whom the system, the way of things, has never felt right. Leary’s words are a challenge to find the others – others are those for whom conformity and and fitting in has been awkward and uncomfortable. Others are familiar with the looks of puzzlement and have worked hard to accept we may never be understood. We’re hard to label, categorize, and index. We’re enchanted by the magic of the novel, the contrary, the unknown and mysterious. Others are equipped with the audacity to buck the dominant paradigms of life, family, work, and business. Others are often on the fringe – artists, thinkers, esoterics and poets – seeking truth, beauty, and goodness where no one else thought to look.
As an other I’ve often found the journey to be lonely. As an adult I’ve made an intentional effort to seek out others who share my experience and perspective, and I’ve found warmth and comfort in these relationships like no other. The community of others I find myself in has helped me to understand my place in the world and the value I can create for those who come behind me.
So that’s what this is – others is a an exploration of these themes. Liminality. Unindexibility. Heterodoxy. I’m hoping the ideas explored here come to serve a communally connective purpose – helping others find each other through the sharing of thoughts and ideas that may not have a home anywhere else.
So if you’re inclined, subscribe and follow along.