This I know…

This life we have, each of us individually, is an intensely personal experience with a wide and varied audience. We live deeply within ourselves yet simultaneously exposed in the center of a universe of others. We can literally only see through the eyes we have yet are constantly bombarded by messages pushing us to see through the eyes of others. And are shamed by society when we can’t or somehow fail to meet expectations. We are told through social and mainstream media that the answers to our most confusing questions are that there is a single golden response that solves this crisis for everyone.

It doesn’t…it can’t…

…but we’re told anyway—over and over and over again—and somehow expected to align our uniqueness and individuality with “the common good” and the “general consensus” which on its face is an impossible task. Why on this earth do we have to take something—a person—that is entirely unique, a one of a kind, and bend it and shape it and water it down until it is so utterly unrecognizable in order for it to be accepted by the rest of the bent, misshapen and watered down inhabitants of the planet?

Well…we don’t.

The fact of the matter is that being individual, being different, being not common—pick your own adjectives, there are so many to choose from—is exactly the way we should be trying to fit in to society. It’s in the overlap, the gaps, the edges that don’t quite line up between us that makes this universe an interesting place…and one we all want to live in. It’s certainly not the edges that fit perfectly, that cause no friction, that are so generic that they are usually not even seen or heard.

So, when you see those messages to either conform or revel in your freakdom (not much middle ground allowed), think one simple thought; “it doesn’t matter how amazing a meal tastes, if you have it for breakfast, lunch and dinner every single day, it loses all of its individuality and eventually you will learn to hate it.”

Don’t be that meal.

Believe. Go. Do.

~TrevorZen