Outsider
Was listening to this in the car:
Outsider, Outsider….
You’re not alone, I’m not alone.
You see me
You hear me
There are millions think just like me.
Thanks Chumbawamba!
I live as close to the edge as I can. I’m not employed. My kids don’t go to school. I run my own business from home. No-one tells me how to live or how to be. My business is run along my own ethical values. My personal ethics match my business ethics. Apparently I am seen as strong willed and opinionated! 
However, there are certain games I have to play. I hate it but it is necessary for survival. I have to submit a tax return every year. I have to provide proof of income to various authority bodies to maintain the status quo here. It’s invasive and a pain in the arse, but it gets done. This all means I get to live they way I want, reliant on no-one but myself. I have a small handful of very very good friends (most of you read this blog and will know I mean you! Thanks, you’re worth your weight in gold!) Those friends are the ones I can rely on, the ones I can lean on. Not some shit of an authoritarian, patriarchal system that tries to shove me and my kids into some tiny restrictive box.
So I live at the edge of the system. Not quite outside but as close as I can get. There’s a few of us here now. The population is growing. I’m liking the company. There are also those who come to visit. They don’t live as close to the edge, they’re more governed by employment, by housing, by their own life choices.
I believe in choice, proper informed choice. I choose to live here. I could choose to put my kids in school, get a job and have a bit more disposable income. I could choose to work for some unethical bastard of a multinational company and hate every minute.
No. I choose to work in my shorts, with hairy legs and very scruffy trainers. I choose to work late at night and dig the garden when the sun is up. I choose to be with the kids I chose to have, all day, every day. These are my choices. They suit us.
They’re not your choices. You make your own choices, for yourself. I’ll respect them. My only proviso is that choices shouldn’t harm anyone.
I’m not alone
You’re not alone.
