Belonging & Un-belonging

I just finished reading a book by James Patterson called Maximum Ride. He has written about 6 kids who at or before birth were injected with avian DNA, which made them mostly human but part bird.

They live in isolation, hiding from the world; they are regarded as mutants, freaks; they don’t belong. Yet their emotions, their desires aren’t any different from any of us. What 6 year old doesn’t like to have toys; who doesn’t like homemade chocolate cookies? These phenomena are universal. This is them, yet they don’t belong.

The whole book is about them struggling to keep alive while their creators are trying to hunt them down and kill them. It maybe a little silly but I felt their pain, shared their joy and saw the world from their eyes.

At one part, Max, the protagonist comes in touch with a human who she takes the risk to ask for help. Max has been shot through the shoulder and asking for help means exposing her delicate wings. The lady doesn’t bat an eyelid, cleans her wounds, feeds her and gives her a warm bed to sleep in.

What makes this lady different from other normal humans? Her compassion; her tolerance and patience; or maybe a heightened sense of peace within that doesn’t make her view something different as a threat?

Real life is not at all like science fiction, but aren’t we also to blame for the same things? Don’t we view people who are different from us with suspicion? Do we not fear them, shun them and even make fun of them?

This comes at times from fear of the unknown, suspicion of the ‘out of the ordinary’, defense for a way of life that has been ingrained into our senses, and often from a feeling of envy and disdain for things that we can’t have or do.

It happens all the time. I have always been the odd one out in my family. To an extent this is because my parents are such distinct individuals even within their own family units. But other than that it is because this is who I am.

In school kids would make fun of me for speaking in English and not being fluent in the regional languages. In college I was infamous because I smoked and didn’t try and hide it. Most of my cousins think I am nuts, again because I smoke and drink openly, have my nose pierced and a tattoo on my shoulder.

The elder generation thinks there is something wrong with me because unlike my cousin sisters who have married nice rich men and spend their days at home caring for their families, I am still unmarried, working and actually planning to marry a guy who chose the armed forces as a career.

Don’t get me wrong; I have nothing against what these girls are doing, in fact I respect it, especially seeing that I don’t have the ability to do it. But I really don’t think what I am looking for is unacceptable either.

I don’t belong in my family, in my society! Yet within this un-belonging, I have found my place and each day I try and see how I can marry the two…

I don’t want to belong! But I do want to un-belong in the nicest possible manner!