American Outliers

Okay, I'm wasting a little time watching television today.  Sometimes it's just easy and freeing to turn off the brain and tune into something a little frivolous.  Maybe a "Storage Wars" marathon, or a some DIY show, or even a freak show now and then.  Heaven knows there are plenty of those on TV these days.

I've happened onto National Geographic's series of shows under the theme, "American Outliers."  The underlying theme is that there are groups or individuals who demonstrate a lifestyle, belief system or social mores that are outside the mainstream. 

In a sense, that is what this country was founded upon - people who believed outside the norm "finding themselves" and establishing a place or community where they were free to exercise their beliefs.  We were founded by outliers who defined what it means to be American.

In a sense, as we all struggle to find ourselves and establish our identities as individuals, we're all outliers to a certain degree.  And no other place on the earth can make that claim.