I have always felt like an alien among human beings. Or maybe I thought I was the human and almost everybody else was an alien. I’m not certain.
I’ve never hated the creatures among whom I walked. I just felt disconnected. I felt as if I was in the wrong place. I felt as if I was looking for something — someone? some place? — where I would find my own kind. Somewhere I would feel loved and understood. Somewhere I would feel at home. With someone I could trust. No longer the strange alien who didn’t fit.
I’ve recently found a line from an old song playing over and over in my head when I encounter things which make me feel this way. It happened again tonight. When I feel detached and troubled about what’s all around me, I feel myself withdrawing emotionally and I hear David Bowie singing bits and pieces of a song — and I always hear, over and over — the line which goes, “Is there life on Mars?”
And I feel like an alien who’s spent years looking for what he needs on Earth and he turns away in hurt and sorrow, asking whether there might be love and life for him on Mars instead.
What if a key to knowing what to do is built into everybody’s gut?
They won’t listen to arguments; they might listen to honest art
Smart people and profit motive have made world a better place
Getting better at all I do is only way to fight ‘imposter syndrome’
I’m losing need to explain myself to those who misunderstand me
Great men who change the world rarely look impressive from start
Was Columbus a hero or a special kind of evil monster? Neither one
I thought I saw her face — and I whispered, ‘Are you proud of me?’
Boston ‘gay on gay’ assault shines light on absurdity of ‘hate crime’