Being an Outlier is a hard row to hoe.
Not that we would trade it in, all of us here at TCG are thankful for the blessing.
But it is difficult, sometimes, to not just hit targets, but to hit targets no one else can see. Leaves you wondering if you have lost the road or they just can't find it. Especially if you know you have imaginational overexcitabilities--you know that sometimes the field of thought expands too far and disintegrates past logic and exploration into confetti of what was once a promising discovery.
But sometimes we really are that smart and really can see that well and the target is big and bold before us. We know what we know and we know what they don't know.
It can drive a person mad....ok well at least into frustration and cynicism. It is hard to be thought of as ridiculous by the neurotypical when you know they are wrong. It is not their fault--they are not less than we are nor, I have found, do they mean to be unkind. What we say and think, though, is sometimes just beyond their ability to understand so it sounds like gibberish.
This is why a)we have to be understanding--even we Outliers differ from each other and the maestro might not understand the passion of the scientist who might be tone deaf and not understand the brilliance of the maestro and b)need to find someone else Outlier who can rein us in when we do start crossing the line from genius to madness (madness meant losely--when our paradigms stop being elegant and start looking like the cat walked over the jigsaw puzzle) and c) keep from being haughty, jaded, superior, or cynical--it is foolishness to presume the lack of ability in one area in the neurotypical (or anyone else) means that we are worth more as humans.
I think women have more trouble with this than men do, though. Women, it seems, are often discounted as having the ability to be brilliant. The male pianist who has emotional OE's is considered a "temperamental genius" whilst the female pianist who has the same talent and OE's is considered hormonal.
This would be an excellent cause for discretion and, again, remembering that we are not brains in a jar. The neurotypical or even the simple who cannot understand our physics might have deep insights into our souls.
In some ways I find the most clashes with a) those who are so neurotypical that they don't even realise that there is a bell curve and that it *is* possible to be an outlier (I see this in education a LOT, where some of my colleagues honestly believe that " 'gifted' students are just those whose parents have taught them extra, and have been pushed") or b) those (and the ones I know happen to be male) who think of themselves as Gifted and are jaded, critical and condescending to everyone else, assuming that because I am not male and have OEs, and have a positive outlook, that I am inferior to them intellectually. But, if I am honest, that bothers me because I still have moments of doubting myself - as I have grown in the Lord, He has been teaching me that my worth doesn't depend on what others think of me, and that they can be wrong. :)
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