Personhoods are staked on the cards dealt and not the hands played, as if we evolved the opposable thumbs of our agency for nothing.*
Maria Popova

I am walking around all alone in this splendid garden that does not belong to me and the gate of which stands wide open for anyone; I dwell here in refreshing but also oppressive loneliness. That is why I’ve been attesting to the existence of this idyllic spot for years … without expecting many strollers to come, however. For what enthrals me and what I experience as beauty is often judged to be dull and dry by others.**
M. C. Escher

The unexampled life can be a lonely place,
Neither this nor that –
And we know how humans so love this and that;
Maria Popova offers two examples in M. C. Escher –
Who sought to bring mathematics and art together in his
groundbreaking, often beautiful artwork – and
Rachel Carson, scientist and poet, whom she describes as:
too lyrical for science and too scientific for literature**.

Those who seek to live between two or more
genres, categories, groups, or fields
know how misunderstood they can be, and yet
we are all capable of taking the “cards dealt” to us –
A starting place only –
And playing them in a way that propels us to live our
beautiful unusualness in a world exploring how to be glorious misfits.

*Maria Popova’s The Marginalian blog: The Good Luck of Your Bad Luck: Marcus Aurelius on the Stoic Strategy for Weathering Life’s Waves and Turning Suffering into Strength;
**Maria Popova’s The marginalia blog: M.C. Escher on Loneliness, Creativity, and How Rachel Carson Inspired His Art, with a Side of Bach.