That's a line from a book I recently finished, but it's a sentiment that I've been thinking about today.  Girl actually brought it up for me, in some sense.

I don't think that the majority of people in this world actually live in the real world.  I think there are a lot of people who live a fantasy and think that it's real life.  They work their 9 to 5 and they do the good marriage thing and they think that they've got some semblance of normalcy and that everything outside of that is somehow bizarre.  But I choose the believe that the semblance of normalcy is anything but.

I work my 9 to 5, I spend many of my evenings/nights playing the rock and roller.  I raise my son to be as good a person as he can be, I spend time doing things I enjoy with people whose company I enjoy.  Why is that not normal?  Is it because I choose not to repress myself á la society's standards?  Is it because the things that I enjoy doing are sometimes things that people don't understand?  Because the truth is that people think I'm weird, simply because I try to live a life that is enjoyable to me.

I think there are far too many people in this world who create some sort of ideal of normalcy based on what they see on television, read in the paper or in novels or on what other people tell them is "right".  I think there are far too few people in this world who define normal or right based on their own true beliefs and choose to allow others to create the definitions for them.  I think that a lot of people wind up giving up certain aspects of themselves in an attempt to fit some mold that, really, no one ever fits.

Why is this the "right" thing to do?  Why is it only acceptable to hide who you are inside, to hide the reality of yourself in the hopes of fitting into some fantastic ideal that no one can ever achieve?

I choose not to.  I choose to make my dreams reality, rather than making reality my dream.

If that makes me weird, so be it.

~FG };^>