not all those who wander are lost

I didn't get up early this morning to sharpen my elbows and practise my smile. 

That's what people do, these days. They figure out what they want and they go and get it. 

You can have everything, they say. (You must have everything, they mean.) We celebrate diversity, they say; everyone has the right to their own way of life. (As long as your way of life is not that of a drifter or aimless dreamer, they mean.) Everyone's values must be respected, they say. (As long as those values are not too different from our own, they mean.)

I can't figure out what I really want or am good at (perhaps because it's many things?) so they put me down. My world is too vast and unspecified so they make me feel I'm wrong.

I will not shrink myself to fit their world. I cannot focus on a goal because there is so much in the universe to explore. I cannot join the race for gold because someone has to slow down to think, to create, to love, to shape the future.

(Title from J.R.R. Tolkien: "All that is gold does not glitter")