Originality
Evolutionarily, I understand why conformity is such a desirable trait in a species like our own. There’s something to be said for gained collective wisdom of what plants are poisonous, what animals can kill us, what a frown on another person’s face means or what goosebumps tell us about our immediate surroundings.
However, the balance between conforming to that shared wisdom in order to keep our biological selves alive and the type of conformity that stymies or ridicules potentially positive-for-the-group (or at least interesting) individual growth is something we’ll never be able to achieve.
Photo by Martin Parr
We are still a young and suspicious type of animal and our lizard brains are still in control of many of our projections and judgments.
So, what to do?
“Well, I try my best
To be just like I am,
But everybody wants you
To be just like them.
They sing while you slave and I just get bored.
I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm no more.”
Of course, there’s no one complete switch that can be pulled in order to be a creative person free of the wheels that Lennon sat back to watch. That there is not a switch is frustrating. Much like everything else in this existence, originality and not conforming for conformity’s sake is a continual process that demands constant attention and deliberation.
That process is not easy, which is why it’s much easier to love the bomb and watch America’s Got Talent.
For this week, at least, I’m going to try and be more deliberate and attentive to the points of possible originality as they come up in my teaching, my thoughts, my use of technology or just my facial hair.
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