Celebrate yourself!
“If you have anything really valuable to contribute to the world,” said Bruce Barton, “it will come through the expression of your own personality, that single spark of divinity that sets you off and makes you different from every other living creature.”
I have been thinking about individuality a lot lately. Well, always. It seems to me that conformity is being subtly enforced upon us. Cars come in black, white, grey and sometimes red or blue. You really have to search for red or blue. When you drive past a new subdivision is a great sea of beige. I rarely go to a shopping mall but went with my husband a short while back. The clothing shops offered all the same colours for winter, the same as the cars. I won't be going back anytime soon.
Obviously, these are not the things that make us individuals. However, they are the things that reflect an expression of ourselves. If I were not an artist I would feel stifled. Is it because I am an artist that I am bothered by all this conformity?
I take great delight in my creativity. Oh, there are times when I wonder why I bother but I snap out of it pretty quick. Creativity is healing and at the very least a pleasant activity. We need more healing and beauty in this world.
“Certain defects are necessary for the existence of individuality.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
I think it is important to celebrate individuality, but only if it is not harmful to others, in the form of aggression or annoyance. Some people need to keep their individuality to themselves - like the neighbour who's playing music at high volume in the middle of the night. Or the yarn crafter who crochets covers for traffic stop signs...
ReplyDeleteI, too, need to find an outlet for my creativity, and am happy I found needle and thread and fabric. Hopefully I am not annoying anyone with my projects.
Some people are not creative at all, and they NEED conformity as they can't live without being led. It's very sad, but they would be stressed out if they were asked to create something by themselves.
So it is important that we can be ourselves, as far as it is possible.