I’ve now been working for over twenty-five years—longer, if you count the snow-shoveling business I started at the age of ten up in Syracuse, which employed four other kids (okay, two were my brother and sister)—and I’ve interviewed thousands of people for an array of positions. To be honest, I dread every so-called normal person who walks through the door. The mantra that always plays in my head is, Same ole, same ole. It’s time we started seeing words like “kooky,” “abnormal,” “crazy,” “eccentric,” and “freak” as what they are: character differentiation. I know you don’t feel normal, so why are you trying to act it and prove to everyone you are?
And once you agree you’re actually as distinctive and individual as your thumbprint— even if you’ve been programmed to behave in “normal” ways—then what? How do we use our specific eccentricities to make a difference in ourselves, our immediate community, our chosen field of employment, and ultimately the world? I happen to believe that the days of going to work all day, making a shitpot of money, and blowing it all on sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll—or any of the other things on this planet that exist to make us feel full and complete—are over.
Please don’t misconstrue this. I want you to have a fucking great time. But I think it’s absolutely essential for you to know you are sacred, magical, and special, to nurture that truth and unleash it into the world. That’s right. I want you to fuck this earth with your energy. It’s about time we stood for something real. I’m suggesting that what is real is you. That means your message and purpose in this world will be different than mine, and that the more you really start to know yourself and gain life experience—when you really start to crack yourself open—you’ll naturally find it.
What do you have to say? What in this world are you called to fight for?
Is it human rights, peace, or polar bears and nature? Is it, as it is for me, young women and gay men? If you aspire to be yourself, and I hope you do, things like education, self-confidence, and learning to communicate and defend yourself are superimportant tools. The truth of the matter is, if you want to find success outside the norm, you really have to fine-tune your skills and become incredibly good at what you do.
If you’re going to get in the ring, babe, you better know how to box.
Take me, for example. I’m really glad I’m allowed to wear all black and no makeup while working in the fashion industry, but I think the only reason I’m allowed to do that is because I tend to get the job done.
And remember, the people who are most cherished and revered on this earth are sometimes the same people who are most ostracized, misunderstood, and hated. From Jesus to Abraham Lincoln to Vincent Van Gogh to Jane Fonda, it’s obvious that people don’t like people who rock the boat or even row the boat, let alone park it in their driveway or on the lawn. They like people who sit quietly in the boat—who have paid in advance for their ticket and don’t say fuck. I believe that when we see people acting “bizarrely” in this world, conjuring “odd” ideas, and talking “crazy,” we should stop for a second before being so quick to judge; perhaps we should even move toward them.
And when we have these ideas ourselves, maybe we should examine or draw them out like a beautiful piece of ribbon candy, instead of stifling them because we think others won’t get it. After all, so much of what we say or don’t say, and what we do or don’t do, is dictated by what others have told us or what people may think of us. This is not how we should be living—measuring ourselves against the mundane. As you have your own Divine revelations and nurture your own intuition, I want you to share them with the world. And don’t retreat or feel bad if no one gets it at first. Because, let’s face it, you can only hope they don’t get it. This will give you an edge, otherwise known as a patent or a trademark opportunity. In commerce, in literature, and in life,
Normal gets you nowhere.
Chapter One
Comfortably Numb
The media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.
—Malcolm X
All of us who professionally use the mass media are the shapers of society. We can vulgarize that society, we can brutalize it. Or we can help lift it to a higher level.
—Bill Bernbach
These days, American life is pretty much set up to allow us to feel as little as possible. We’ve been desensitized by the thousands of choices capitalism presents us on a daily basis: five hundred TV channels, seventy brands of cereal in the grocery store, sixteen different vitamin drinks, forty-seven brands of jeans. In the words of Pink Floyd, we’ve become “comfortably numb.” While horrible things happen all over the world, we spend a lot of our time deciding, Hmmm, should I get the Honey Nut Cheerios or the organic almond Kashi granola? Should I buy a boyfriend jean or a skinny jean? Should I watch HBO or TiVo? Let’s face it, we are in a capitalistically overwhelmed state. And this is no accident. While you’re in the grocery store or the Gap deciding what to eat and what to wear, there are lobbyists and politicians in
