I mean really. My Dad's a
pot-smoking ex-hippy who makes
tofu for a living, goes surfing almost every day and is possessed of a mystical transcendentalist philosophy. he does yoga too, which is partially my fault. My mother is a great chef of eastern foods, and we live in a semi-agricultural suburb in a semi-agricultural country and grow our own organic vegetables and
herbs. We drive a
Volvo for chrissakes.
My parents followed an enlightened philosophy of child-rearing, not forcing any identity on me and encouraging me to be different from people who got me down. So
why the hell aren't I a hippy? Why can't I fit in with the sycophantic cool crowd of my hometown, despite having so much in common with them? How did I become such a weird hybrid of science-geek and
alternative mainstream doyenne? Just because I refuse to talk in terms of
'energy' and shit like that, they can't accept that I know what they're talking about?
This is probably some sort of
fundamental truth. If you don't speak in terms that
they like, they will judge you. Because of this,
my attitude towards language has made relating to groups of people an almost impossible task for me. I will never fit in to any given group of people, though I always stand a high chance of charming and identifying with any given individual. At least, that's what I've found.