Have you ever thought about everything that Jesus had to give up? I mean... lots of little things, lots of big things... it really bothers me sometimes. He went without so many things (or even needed to appear to do so) for the sake of his image. Whether or not he saw/felt those as sacrifices is irrelevant, in my opinion. I just... how out of place did Jesus feel? Can you imagine?

I can't.

I recently read another of Orson Scott Card's... Ender in Exile, when Ender has to continue life after he has saved humanity, annihilated another species, and... completely ostracized himself from everyone who has loved him. This takes place between the end of the second Formic war and Speaker for the Dead, and it outlines the first couple colonies Ender goes to during the... thousand(s), I don't remember... of years (non-relative adjusted) before Lusitania.

Between Ender, Jesus, and Frodo (at the end of LOTR), I keep thinking about how each of these people lose and sacrifice so much. I mean, Galadriel straight up says, "to bear a ring of power is to be alone." How sad is that?

What does it take to change the world, or to save it? Is it possible to be extraordinary enough to reshape the world somehow and ordinary enough to love and be loved, all at the same time? There's a part of me that says yes, it happens, that the REAL past trends show that exact thing (sorry, LOTR and OSC are fiction, and the Bible's accuracy is at least questionable... don't get caught in that detail).

There's a part of me that says that, even if you're not alone, you will always be lonely. There's never that person who understands you, or the burdens you bear, or the wonders you see, or the things you do... no one can even come close.

Or is that just life? Is life one long string of judging people you don't understand, and being judged by people who don't understand you? Certainly there has to be a certain level where we start to understand another person as well as we understand ourselves. I guess maybe I've heard the romantic idea that you can 'understand them better than yourself' too many times. Does that really happen? And... if it does, can you still have that when you raise above................. normalcy?