“I live life in the margins of society. And the rules of normal society don’t apply in the margins.”
—Tamara de Lempicka
There’s a certain arrogance to throwing down the rule book and not playing the game like the other six billion people on the planet. Our elders solidly in the middle of the game. The younger generation too naieve to understand anything outside of the game. Our handfuls of eclectic friends, all holding on to eccentricities as shields against the norm. We look in at the circle of society in front of us; at how blissfully ignorant these other people are, running around playing by their quaint little rules. We step back out of their way – trying the best we can to keep their shadows from falling on our enlightenment. Nobody can tell us anything!
Except, perhaps, the people that stepped over the edge before us. The author of the quote at the beginning – she died 21 years ago at the age of 82. We have a tendency to think we’re the first ones to ever color outside the lines, but enlightenment’s been going on for a long time. It’s not wrong to throw down the rule book but perhaps when we do, we take on a deceptive arrogance. I started thinking that there were, after all, people outside the rules long before I could even read rules, let alone abandon them. I started thinking about who might be standing outside my little circle. Looking over my shoulder. Lamenting my ignorance.
And then I thought perhaps, hopefully, I just joined them.