Emptiness

 We are never an outsider and remain outside; we feel ourselves incapable of remaining outside, or are afraid not to be in the current of the commonplace. As parents and educators, we make the family and the school what we are. Mediocrity really means going only half-way up the mountain and never reaching the top. We want to be like everybody else, or if we want to be slightly different, we keep it carefully hidden. We are not talking of eccentricity, which is another form of self-expression, which is what everyone is doing in his own little way. Eccentricity is only tolerated if you are well-to-do or gifted. If you are poor and act peculiarly, you are snubbed and ignored. But few of us are talented; we are workers carrying on with our particular professions. The world is becoming more and more mediocre. Our education, our occupation, our superficial acceptance of traditional religion are making us mediocre and rather sloppy. We are concerned here with our daily life, not with the ...