200 WORDS ON - Not Belonging

We believe we’re free to belong or to not belong To opt in and out of engagement with ordinary life, society and other people. Maybe it’s essential for our wellbeing to take a holiday from everyone else. Yet even our 'not belonging' confirms us as being in the like-minded company of 'those who do not belong'. Everyone belongs somewhere, to something. Not belonging can be this useful pose we adopt.

To place ourselves as this maverick outsider, the ostracised, the unacceptable is a form of self-constructed belonging. Our own unique way of being a disconnected personality. Somewhere to hide ourselves away from the strictures of connectivity. The internet is a great place to hide in plain sight, to thrive in its aloof alienated state. Appearing not to belong to anything or anyone.

There are times in life when we can no longer countenance conforming, we are that proverbial misfitting wheel. Close proximity to communal life isn’t what we need right now. We have to reconnect with our individual freedom to chose. Be a free spirit, free in mind, conventions, commitments, connections, restrictions, free of the lot of them. Not belonging is existing outside of intimacy with others, in order to be more intimate with ourselves.