The Gate and the Tower

22. Idiosyncrasy is a service

When it looks like your work…

You’re not being this way because you’re wacky or even a jerk. You’re choosing to be this way in service of your customers and in service of your audience

You have chosen not to fit in

https://seths.blog/2019/10/bread-and-books/

Prompt: So, once more: Where does your idiosyncrasy lie? Can it be more clear, more consistent and more generous?

I’ve been mulling over the responses I got from my friends in https://pro2.akimbo.com/t/windmill-slayer/36312?u=mtfallsvr, and despite being in completely unrelated friend groups, they all stated the same characteristics:

• I work hard
• I have outlandish dreams
• I am emphatic to the emotions of others

I’ve also been mulling about who my tribe should be personality-wise. The intersection of genre I want to hit is pretty easy: I like anime, I like virtual reality, I like videogames. Bam. Easy. I also want to tell stories that aren’t commonly told, like women and minorities being empowered as peers and equals. That’s the extra spice.

But what part about all this, makes me, me?

I reflect, and I think about The Turn. The Turn is a literary term to describe when a character has lived a normal life, and are suddenly are thrust into the story they never expected to be in.

For the audience I want to serve, I want to reach emerging adults such as myself, lauden with potential but stuck where they are in life because the Turn is something that just doesn’t happen in real life. From an earlier daily where I reference Fight Club… [quote=”mtfallsVR, post:146, topic:27179”] We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our great war is a spiritual war… Our great depression is our lives. [/quote]

What would call us to action?

Then I think about a literary term I just made up, the Gate. The Gate is the realization that we are being held back, and we are livid about it.

• Why do we spend our golden years of youth working for someone else’s dreams to be realized, and be “allowed” to live once it’s too late to truly enjoy life?
• Why do we make it okay to turn a blind eye to the things that make us uncomfortable? Why do we choose to ignore, instead of being livid and taking action for this be fixed?
• Why do we shame the rehabilitation of mental well-being and label it as as sign of weakness? (@eliturner did a WONDERFUL daily regarding this -> https://pro2.akimbo.com/t/eli-turner-dailies/27193/272?u=mtfallsvr)
• Why this, why that, why, why, why…

The questions only start emerging when we stop, pause to breathe, and REALLY take stock of the world around us in flames. It’s all so awful, and the story we’ve been misled to believe is that we are just one person. We cannot make a difference.

I want to challenge this notion by proving anyone can be a hero. I want to keep my humble roots and nature as part of my idiosyncrasy, and create bridges for others to walk on when they start realizing, yes, I can do this too!

What is my idiosyncrasy? I am the guardian of this gate, and I will issue your grand challenge: to find the answers you seek at the top of this tower.

@dragon @homeroom11

G’s and T’s for Gates and Towers @gulliverfarnan @graydenshand @tracyschifeling @tombailey