The Far Side of the Moon  

Show Notes

• Archived Blog Post

  Date / Time: 9/4/2009 7:50 PM UTC

  A First Post - What is "Xenos" and "the Far Side of the Moon"?
  

  It is exploration day for me, checking out all the features available here at BlogTalkRadio.
  
  I have kept a website for many years, but this is the first time I have done anything like a blog, at least on the web.  Since I have it available and I am not paying for it, I might as well use it!
  
  Since this is a blog directly tied to "The Far Side of the Moon" radio show, it is going to be about the concept of Xenos.  Although I often use the word "alien" to refer to those who are essentially different-minded, we are definitely born on this world and live out our lives among the "normal" majority.  This radio show is an attempt to better connect with other Xenos and help each other find greater purpose and meaning for our lives.  All these high-minded talk is very complicated by the fact that Xenos think and act and, very often, feel differently than the majority of people around them.
  
  So, what makes a person a Xenos?  It is difficult to pin down and I have spent the better part of a decade thinking about it.  I have identified certain groups that seem to have Xenos attributes: autistics, schizophrenics, OCD sufferers, committed "homosexuals", hyperactives, nerds, anti-socials, and some academics.  I certainly can't say anything conclusive, but I think all these people have a particular attribute in common and that attribute is akin to something  commonly called obsession.  If you want an example of what I am talking about, just imagine someone (like me) that spends years trying to find connections between some pretty deviant folks that most would rather lock up or medicate into oblivion.  That seems to fit the definition of obsession pretty well.
  
  The name Xenos is a very old greek term for "stranger" or "foreigner".  I use this term to identify "obsessed" people because other terms used to describe our differences are often very derogatory and focus on attitudes of dysfunction and "fixing" those differences.  My hope is that the term Xenos comes to embody a respect for the things that make us different from others and the potential that we have to contribute to the happiness of everyone, including ourselves.  Instead of being "broken" people with a variety of disorders, Xenos people can be treated like the "different" but useful people that they are.
  
  Just think about all of the many bits of technology that surround everyone and fulfill our needs.  Each one of these were created by very different minds.  The typical and very "normal" person has no idea how these things even work, much less the capacity to create such things.  History shows us that almost all the technology we take for granted was created and developed by eccentric, often obsessional people who seemed to be born with a dream and bred with a determination to see that dream come true at any cost.  Things like computers and mp3 players and cellular telephones, among millions of other things, are the result of such driven people.  If you like your tech, thank a techie, or rather, thank a Xenos.
  
  Of course, people forget where these things come from and we live in a world where the Xenos are treated very badly and taught to feel badly about what they are.  We are given labels to make us feel broken, cajoled into taking drugs that sometimes take away our purpose for living, or simply allow ourselves to slip into depression or suicide, all because we don't "fit in", which seems to be the most important thing to do in this world.  Think about any school anywhere and how the "nerds" are treated, multiply that by a lifetime of years, and it becomes quite easy to see why such misunderstood people have such agonizing and unhappy lives.
  
  "The Far Side of the Moon" is a hopeful attempt to reach out to Xenos people and work to undo some of the damage done to "different" people by the prevalent society around us.  We want to encourage the next Einstien and Edison, Gutenburg and Googenhiem, Columbus and Copernicus, to do what they were born to do and not succumb to the forces that would drag them down.
  
  There are amazing and very different people all around us and my hope is to encourage them to never give up what makes them amazing and different.  This is what I hope to create on "the Far Side of the Moon."
  
  
  
  
  • Tags:
  • obsession
  • xenos
  • different
  • autism
  • adhd
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