There really are but a few moments in life that hit you with such clarity, such candor and open and brutal honesty that they leave you emotionally breathless. They are views from the proverbial 10,000 feet; emotionally distanced, seeing through the smoke, seeing the man behind the curtain for who he really is.

Again, as I tend to speak in pointless metaphors, there really is a point here. I’ve been privelaged to meet several people in my life that are the perfect, walking articulation of social duplicity. I mean, we all play our parts. Growing up there is not one of us that is at some point not forced to go with the flow, run with the crowd, vote with the majority or be among the numbers. Some of us take it in stride and don’t question it. Others rebel purely on the notion of not wanting to ‘sell out’ and follow the herd. But there really are the few that straddle both sides of the line. While I know a few wonderful individuals who do this with excellent and polished precision…it is the few that struggle with this dichotamy that i find painfully alluring.

Have you ever met someone that was one of the socially elect, yet at the same time trying to swear off that title like a bad addiction? To me, knowing several people like this, I am constantly rendered speechless at the psychological complexity that this involves. For example, a guy who’s studying to be a lawyer, who’s exceptionally attractive and who gets along with almost everyone he meets. His friends are all beautiful, and he only dates beautiful people. But at the same time, he’s down to earth, kind of a homebody and naturally shy. There’s a nagging pain in his conscience, this haunting ghost of reality that daily reminds him of his dual social existence. He continues on the path of The Chosen, yet yearns for the life of the Nobody.

To me, the unraveling of such people is concurrently the most painful and most beautiful experience to witness. Perhaps it’s cliched to compare it to a metamorphosis of sorts, but it’s true. The social decompression that takes place within a person’s ego when they elect to stop running with the popular crowd in order to realize their real inner being is mind bending. The process is so tragic, so poetic and yet so sad.

I pray that you all are able to become friends with someone at some point in your life that opens your eyes to such things. While it’s not a freakshow-attraction type thing, it really is an incredible and awe-inspiring experience that gently reminds us of the fragility of the human spirit as well as the brute power of social nurturing.

You know i’m gonna have to really learn to polish this crap up or else i’ll even stop reading this damned site…