An outsider, who is he? This term , it has so many meanings.
It might imply an individual who is a loner– who often feels alone- he is not like the others. He can’t or won’t join in; what he loves is too precious to him! He can’t risk it being misunderstood or even ridiculed.
“Alone” by Edgar Allan Poe
An excerpt:
From childhood’s hour I have not been
As others were—I have not seen
As others saw—I could not bring
My passions from a common spring—
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow—I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone—
And all I lov’d—I lov’d alone—
What about an artist? He is not necessarily a loner; he is more of a free spirit; brave and comfortable with standing out- unlike your average man.
“The average man is a conformist, accepting miseries and disasters with the stoicism of a cow standing in the rain.”
– Colin Wilson
There are two sides to an artist being an outsider – the first, it’s a feeling that originates from within, an internal emotional state – a sense of feeling different. The second is the mirror of this, a sense of not only feeling different in yourself, but the knowledge that others also recognize this in you.
Since the very first cave drawings, music, theatre, literature and other art were used to hold a mirror up to society, express different undercurrents running through cultures and pass down traditions.
Is an outsider a marginalized person, in a society that is wanting in kindness and wisdom?
Society can marginalize on the basis of race, religion; socioeconomic status; gender; health or disability. We stigmatize and send to the margins people who trigger in us the feelings we want to avoid, or reveal qualities we’re most afraid we will find in ourselves. Marginalized people are the mirrors that show us what we don’t want to see.
But its so much more than that, because… everyone is your mirror!
Anyone who is not “you”, is an outsider you can learn from.
Your relationships are mirrors, mirroring your inner world. Others are always reflecting parts of your consciousness back to you, allowing you to see yourself, to grow and to change your beliefs about who you are, about other people and about relationships.
The qualities you most admire in others are part of your consciousness and the same goes for the qualities you dislike. This means that to change anything in your relationships, you must be the change you want to see.