It’s frequently the oddballs, outliers, outcasts, and lunatics that we should be paying attention to the most.
They’re on to something, or at least working on it
Should they survive the trial that is their life, they’ll often emerge with wisdom of the highest caliber, profoundly useful to those still in the fight.
Or they’ll use all their negatives as fuel for their metamorphosis into something entirely new.
And if the most tortured among us can pull this off, what’s it mean for you?
Your pain–your trials–are messages from your subconscious in response to your daily choices; collectively and in the immediate.
Every day, you’re quietly leading yourself toward, or away from, a life worth having.
- Handled well, they will result in a much expanded experience of life, a deeper understanding of the subtle, and an ability to translate it into something useful for those seeking the same.
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Handled poorly, or ignored, they will result in mediocrity, at best, and an unnecessarily early death, at worst.
These messages and your reactions to them are the fabric of your life
Patton Oswalt made this fact crystal clear in his book, “Silver Screen Fiend: Learning About Life from an Addiction to Film”.
I am a fan because, in many ways, I am him.
And I very much wanted to know how a guy who faced similar struggles went on to become the great success that he has.
Becoming a comedian is not for the faint of heart. It takes guts. Paradoxically, it draws some of the most fear-filled people to its stage.
Integration of the two breeds profound insight.
Patton has his demons. They’re with him every day. He just doesn’t let them dictate the overall quality of his life or his ability to support those he cares for most.
He also developed a perspective from merging his fears and desires that made all the pain and self sabotage meaningful.
He reformatted his horrors into things of beauty
I did that to the best of my abilities at the time in “It Takes Guts To Be Me”.
And I’m attempting to do the same inside the pages of this site. And to varying degrees, with everyone I cross paths with in my day.
There is something to be gained from ever single interaction with another person.
The knowledge gained may not always be desired.
Other times, it can be earth-shatteringly perfect for your needs and has the potential to entirely change the course of your life.
Never know until you both put yourself out there and also become a student of people. And a student of yourself.
But for many of us, it’s not enough to just learn and grow
- The art of learning, growing, and then translating the meaning of it all is what gets some of us out of bed in the morning.
- The art of taking that translation and then integrating it with real world issues, or adapting it from an abstract process to a tangible device is something some of us simply can’t NOT do!
I’m that. Those. Them up there.
And I get better at it all by learning from warped souls like Patton.
He makes me laugh til I piss blood. Then I wonder why.
That wondering leads me to some profoundly interesting territories.