I’ve seen a few things lately about another way the “black sheep” of the family can be seen. But first, let me get into how they’ve appeared to me before now.

They’ve always been someone rebellious, without focus, or even the “loser” of the family. Trapped in a parent’s basement/spare room, no drive to move forward in life unless they “grow up” into potential conformity and stagnation.

Cinematically, you might see them “clean up their act” and end up taking on a steady job somewhere, often with a well-off family member. I doubt that’ll happen, as I’ve worked with one of my own before. How the last time it came to be is why I’ll never do it again.

Other definitions I’ve seen label them as the outcast that refuses to share their feelings about anything or one. Likely a response to being shamed and punished for seeing others in a dimmer light than the false one the person of interest casts on themselves.

But that’s where things get interesting in that last one. To me, this is where the “black sheep” can still hold that title while still improving on themselves. So well, that whatever they stay focused on can lead to a success life further away from the shaming and deflective friends and/or family that “love” them that way.

How else can they cope with their own problems?

Enough of us know the answer to that, but even that’s tied to a topic I’d love to get to soon.

So if you’re wearing that label in any group, hopefully it’s in a way where you’re not sitting around hoping for a miracle to come. Instead, you’re doing what you can to make it find you. To have it reward you for breaking bonds that you knew were wrong, but couldn’t phrase the experiences comfortably.

Well now you can. Let them hate you for it. It’s the closest they’ll get to making them openly hate themselves.

D.F.