The Path of the Outsider. A stranger in this century?
Posted on: July 9, 2025
Note: Happiness is a modern idea. People never enjoyed much time to create the notion of happiness
By: Erik Rittenberry
Happiness has never been my aim.
I'm not too interested in the
anesthetized comforts that so many
mistake for fulfillment.
It is a pale
and transient thing, happiness, a surface
glimmer that vanishes the moment one
gropes for it.
The soul needs fire, not ease.
Trials and tribulations of an agonizing
passion that propels it toward its destiny.
It
needs adventure, daring shenanigans, and
a fierce audacity to transcend that
culturally-defined, yet loathsome
word we call "expectations."
I'm not here to squander this brief life
on vain preoccupations or foolish ambition,
chasing the manufactured ideals of success that
so much of modern society idolizes.
That's
not where it's at. These are all but mirages,
distractions that lead us away from the
wisdom of the blood.
True success is not found in conforming,
nor is it measured by wealth and shiny
possessions.
It comes as a derivative
of an uncommon vitality, by following
one’s deepest instincts, by obeying
the subtle whisper of the soul
rather than the clamor
of the world.
I chase no approval, no validation—only
a little freedom to create, to become.
With
little, I am more. Life is not about
waiting to be shaped by circumstance, or
accommodating the whims of leaders
and charlatans, it is about shaping oneself,
carving one's own name into the
weathered stone of being.
We all stand at the eternal crossroads
every moment of our lives.
Either we yield to the illusions of this
fabricated world, allowing it to mold
us into passive onlookers, dulled by empty
distractions and half-baked ambitions, exchanging
the fire of our own becoming for the false
gods of security and routine, forsaking
the deep call that stirs within.
Or we will choose the path of the outsider—
a rebel in the truest, most
metaphysical sense.
We will uncover within ourselves a deep
and unshakable truth, and we will cast
our lives into the tumultuous sea of fate,
denying ourselves no experience, tearing
away the veil of artifice to see the world
as it truly is.
We will either become benumbed spectators
in the arena of life or impassioned creators
we were born to be, unapologetically alive
and in harmony with the primal force
that called us into existence.
Adonis Diaries 
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