Abnormal Brilliance
Let's call normal what it is—it is what's spoken and commonly seen. It is part of a cultural narrative. It is common, so common it seems to be a theme.
Normal refers to a common narrative.
Common narratives are unsatisfying to brilliant minds.
That means that if you are endowed with brilliance, there is a hunger in you, something asking how to make sense of it all.
Every narrative you know has holes, yet normal is the only standard you know.
At any turn you might catch yourself allied with that which you know is bogus, something "everyone agrees" is true, something "society teaches."
For a brilliant mind, anything done purely for
alliance with a narrative is a self-betrayal. Whereas following what's aligned, we might also find ourselves in something that looks common, with an uncommon contentment.
With a brilliant mind, no one narrative will suffice. What's required is a process of narrative exploration, thoroughly practiced such that it becomes automatic.
The fulfillment for a brilliant mind is confidence in the internal processes and confidence in the evaluations and manifestations resulting from those processes.
The fulfillment of a brilliant mind is an ongoing thing, it will not preen in any state of achievement. Achievement is a cage that a brilliant mind will pace, chafe against, and always break free from.
It is a problem to see this as a problem.
Brilliance is meant to prowl the world, to get up to major and trivial things, to live politely and with grace, to spring forth from an alignment beyond all common narratives, fitting in, standing out.
