A Feeling of Belonging

Do you ever feel like you just don't belong?  Like maybe you were meant to live in another time?  Lately I've been feeling this way.  It's hard to explain, but I just feel out of place.  Then I read this book, which had a bit of a fantasy element in it.  In the book, there were instances of time travel.  One of the main characters goes back and forth between present day and the early 1800s.  While in the past he protects a woman who he keeps insisting doesn't belong there.  He mentions that he gets a weird feeling about her, as if she was there by accident.  As it turns out, she was actually a princess from the 1200s.  It's all very confusing to try to explain, but it got me thinking.  What if I'm here by accident too?  What if I'm actually from another time and I got stuck here by mistake?  What if other people think I don't belong also?  Then I started thinking, what era might I be from?

I've always had a fascination with the Old West.  Gunslingers, lawmen, boom towns.  It's all so exciting!  But is that where I'm meant to be?  I'm not sure.  I do love root beer and poker.  But there's a certain level of lawlessness that I'm not sure is for me.

What I have noticed lately is that I've been really fascinated with the culture of the 1950s.  I've been listening to a lot of doo wop music lately and my favorite restaurant is a 50s diner.  In fact, I've always kind of felt at home in old school diner establishments.  The simplicity of burgers and shakes while songs play from a jukebox just makes me smile.  It's so peaceful to me.  I've started wondering if I was meant to be a soda jerk.  Then I decided to watch Pleasantville.  That movie always makes me smile, and not only because of its portrayal of the idyllic life of the 1950s.  As a matter of fact, it challenges that perception and encourages us to think about our preconceived notions of perfection.  Mr. Johnson, the soda shop owner in the movie, gets a charge out of doing things differently for the first time.  He wants to know why things have to be the same all the time, and why he has to wait all year for his favorite moment.  I can relate to that.  I wonder why we do things the way we do all the time and why it can't be different.  I think that's where the feeling of not belonging comes from.  It's not that I don't belong.  It's that I want to challenge the way things are, which makes me stand out and feel like I'm different from everyone else.

So the real question is, how do I shake this feeling?  How do I feel like I belong instead of feeling like a stranger in a strange land?  How can I continue to challenge the status quo of the world and be accepted?  How can I get other people to see that change is good and that we need that spark in our lives?  Do other people feel like I do?  If so, would they admit it?  Will it take some sort of life altering event like in Pleasantville for people to realize it?  Will I ever find the answers to these questions?  I don't know.  If you have any thoughts, feel free to share.