Outside

Occasionally I stop to be weirded out by the idea of the many thousands of people in my own culture, in my own country, in surroundings familiar to me, and who are leading lives essentially the same as mine in basic structure, who nonetheless experience life in ways that are completely and utterly alien to me. I'm not at all without empathy, but there are some mindsets I can never fathom.

What's it like to think climate change is all made up? What's it like to be highly organised? What's it like to always think everything will turn out fine? What's it like to be capable of avoiding procrastination? What's it like to be ambitious? What's it like to not fear rejection? What's it like to just front up to conflict? What's it like to be supremely confident? (Corollary: what's it like to be totally and utterly full of yourself?) What's it like if everything always makes you sad? What's it like to not have to worry about money? What's it like to love leaping out of bed early in the mornings? What's it like to be able to say "If I won 20 million dollars in Lotto, I wouldn't quit my job" and mean it? What's it like to decide that having kids isn't for you by age 20? What's it like to be alone? What's it like to just not care? What's it like to care enough to do something? What's it like if going to bed at 1:40am doesn't count as an early night for you? What's it like to just go "ah screw it" and just let all basic social responsibility wash over you without any of it sticking in even the slightest?

You're so very weird, people with these things. Princess Leia put it best: You have a power I don't understand, and could never have. And the woods are full of you! (Like Ewoks, I guess. Yub-yub.)

Man, I just have no idea what your collective deals are.