Many people here get quite touchy when it comes to politics and such, but outside of that it’s pretty nice that I can pretty much post about whatever interests me and people show up in the comments being encouraging and genuinely curious.
So many times in real-life interactions I start talking about something I’m into, only to realize the other person doesn’t really get it or just isn’t interested so I just then steer the discussion to other things. Over time you learn to keep all that stuff to yourself, and it almost starts building up inside you. Then you end up dumping it on someone again and immediately regret it, which then just reinforces this negative loop.
Not here though. I could probably start making animal figures from pine cones tomorrow and posting them, and it’d likely hit the “front page” with dozens of comments in no time.
It’s almost like there’s this inner child in me who still wants to play, but that’s embarrassing so it needs to stay hidden from “normal” people. Still, I suspect pretty much everyone is hiding that same part of themselves, and we’d all be a lot better off letting it out and not taking ourselves so seriously all the time.
The normal people you speak of for the most part are pretty much also just trapped in that very feedback loop. Lots of folks feel very intense pressure to conform to ‘normality’. Comes across in everything they do, watch, listen to, wear, and so on.
Rejection is just that powerful, and people contort themselves to avoid it. Funny thing tho, being your authentic self and thriving in it is actually a form of rejection as well; you’re rejecting their concept of normality. You’re quietly saying that the lengths they go to fit in, the sacrifices they make, are all for nothing.
This is how you give birth to “haters”. People who have no leverage over you via simple disinterest or rejection, so they have to actively try to drag you down to the appropriate “normal” level of misery with them.
However! This is also how you find other genuine, amazing people who make the hours fly by just by sharing their love of the world with you.
I say all this because it can be very intense to encounter your haters. But they’re not who you’re looking for. So it’s very much worth maintaining your excitement for pine cone sculptures or whatever. Everything that brings you joy in this life is gonna motivate some people to want to bring you down. Just respectfully disengage, and keep your beautiful energy intact for the next person