The downward spiral, revisited

Every last one of us is a fucked up human being. What is normal? We're all so damaged and delusional and addicted to petty things. so beautiful and barely functional. If all we embrace only the parts we want to see, how much of ourselves are we really accepting? I'd rather be an outlaw than a hero. Someone who has to embrace themselves because to not live on the fringes of society doesn't suit them. Someone who has to be everything they are, even with all the ugly parts, to survive.

The Way that can be experienced is not true;
The world that can be constructed is not real.
The Way manifests all that happens and may happen;
The world represents all that exists and may exist.

To experience without abstraction is to sense the world;
To experience with abstraction is to know the world.
These two experiences are indistinguishable;
Their construction differs but their effect is the same.

Ok, so that's from the tao te ching. Don't count on any semblance of theme here.