Spiritual people are weird

A friend of mine once said she finds it hard to reconcile between Damien the guy who has an opinion on spiritual matters (*woooooo... makes the sound of a ghost*) and the 20-something year old entreprenuer wannabe who loves a prank or two.

Damn, she must still remember that last trick I pulled on her back in college which I won't get into to save someone some embarrassment. :)

Actually I think my dad has been trying to figure out the same thing too. Is Damien the serious spiritual seeker, the semi-serious business hack, or the completely unserious and insensitive brat he's had a few man-to-man talks with.

And I have brought this up a few times: dude, why can't I be all three?

Everyone assumes that someone who enjoys a good time is incapable of being spiritual and vice versa. We'll, I'm not too sure about that. Then again, I've always been somewhat of a non-conformist, to put it mildly. Not only do I not conform to elder people's expectations. I also don't conform to younger people's expectations. ^_^

This what I'm talking about, in case you're wondering.

Age 1 - 11: Everything's a game. People who don't want to play are lame.
Age 12 - 18: We rebel against everything grownups root for. And everything's a joke. We run our dad's car into a tree and then say geez dad, can't you take a joke?
Age 19 - 25: We crave to be part of the "in" crowd. We scream lifestyle and attention. We feel suicidal if we're told we don't fit in.
Age 26 - 35: Shit, life is tough. Better get serious. But those bright lights... they're still calling us.
Age 36 - 50: Bills, bills, bills. Don't come to me for an allowance. And turn down that damn noise will ya.
Age 51 - beyond: Gimmme some peace and quiet, dammit! I'm trying to pray / meditate here.

So... which camp are you in?

I'm "supposed" to sit squarely in the Age 19-25 camp so I can understand why the raised eyebrows when I slide up and down their preprogrammed scale. The 20-somethings think I'm weird for being able to slide way up to the Age 51 and beyond scale.

You see, 20-somethings are NOT supposed to have a spiritual opinion because that makes you a shit-eating tree-hugging weirdo. Definitely not one of us, they say.

And older people? They think I'm weird too. You talk like a grown up, they say, but why do you look like a teenager?

Not that I care.

Its fun to confuse everyone. And because I'm just a little better at keeping my cool, I'd like to think I'm more objective when it comes to making a tough choice. You need plenty of that in the 19-30 range as you know.

But here's a well-hated fact. People grow up at different rates. I've seen enough older people who dress up like teenagers and young kids who dress like grown ups. And in trying to conform to some imaginary scale, spiritual people try to put on the mask of a hip and happening person and vice versa. Creepy.

Why all these masks? If everyone spends all that energy to be who they can be, instead of trying to be who they're not, wouldn't we have a happier and more genuine bunch of people around us?

Ok. Back to the real world and my choco-top ice cream cone...