those who were different

The only ones I could look up to (or could even bear) where the ones who did not (who could not) adhere to convention; those who questioned standards of behaviour and simply did things their own way. Oscar Wilde broke the standard usage of words and created lines of genius spoken by characters so outrageous to the accepted standards of society that they were terrifying. Kerouac drank and travelled and wrote without any thought of career or a standard way of life. Fitzgerald was permanently drunk but still produced beautiful prose. Bukowski refused to accept any commercial aspect of life and defied the boring dogma that most of humanity adhere to; such as the simple cliché ‘you can’t drink alone’ and that ‘literature must follow specific rules’. He wrote prolifically and changed accepted literature. Morrissey refused to sing about or think about or praise sex. He claimed to be celibate and asexual and sang songs about loneliness and sadness – themes society is taught to avoid at all costs. Greg Graffin rose to the top of punk whilst achieving a PhD and becoming a professor. He taught us that it is vital to be an individual… to be yourself… and to question all accepted beliefs, going as far as to refuse to describe himself as an atheist and preferring to use the term naturalist to explain his beliefs. Joe Strummer always believed in the raw basics of human bonds and creativity, money was not important to him. Eric Cantona leapt into the crowd to fight back against racial intolerance only to describe the media circus afterwards in philosophical metaphors.

There are others, of course, many others, but these are the ones I look up to most. These are the ones who have left me feeling less alone as I have gone through life.