With the start of a new year, usually we are given more time to live with a certain level of optimism. 2016 doesn’t seem to be following the same pattern. I wonder why that is? Could it be that our continued denial of the fact that all is not right with the world is causing reality to want to teach us a harsh lesson? We talk of history as lessons we’ve learned, and yet our actions deny the knowledge. Acceptance of all that is seems to be the answer of the da(ys)ze. We are dazed from the continued thumping we get when we choose anything but the accepted path…the one that society tells us we must follow.
Or we can stray from the garden path – if you’ve been watching “The Magicians” on SyFy (no, I haven’t read the books yet, as I still hold the meaningful world of Harry Potter in high esteem). This series is starting a good talk with me, simply because it’s being told by people who are not part of the “accepted” or status quo (and I love fantasy so I will give any such storyline a chance to experience a little magic in my life). Here is a hero that we can all relate to in all of his broken potential. People who chose not to follow the norm are attempting to live without drowning out themselves. They understand the importance of being different, and that it’s much more than some cliche saying.
Think of all those articles you’ve read that try to help you to accept yourself if you’re not popular or “normal”. What do they all have in common? They try to build a narrative that allows us to fit our true selves within the construct of acceptance. We all crave to be accepted by someone, or we would never try so hard to build our relationships. It’s an integral part of nature, though even nature understands that growth requires change.
And then some book comes along that touts the norm and tries to discourage us from “being different” because that process wastes too much (like the one below – thanks again Reddit). These books are written and published by humans so you might want to take their advice with a barrel of salt, and question everything with a sense of humor (if possible).
All I could think was…WOW, really? As I’ve never read this book because my SAT days are in the distant past (when I accepted its importance because I was too young to know better), I’m choosing to see the dark humor of their sarcasm. Once again, here’s the story about the fight for acceptance which is showing its ugly face in politics (which I truly despise). That this fight is at the forefront in politics is showing just how far our current form of morality (the so-called lifeblood of society) has receded from our beliefs. Rules have now taken the place of human intuition, and these rules are not something we should blindly accept as our only fact. When anyone tells you that we are a nation of laws, ask them what importance they place on such rules and why. If it is their guiding light, then you should probably ask further questions and be prepared for a long-winded argument about their beliefs. And if they claim that chaos does not have a place in this world, because order is the most important, then be prepared for a long battle because they think that they are in charge and won’t want to give that up. Remember…greed is a powerful thing.
Rules are the new price that we pay for not fighting the current condition of humankind. We have strayed from the lessons of old, as well as the ways of old. And I’m not talking about our recent forefathers, but those who brought mankind into enlightenment. Who saw that light and dark co-exist because they must in order to get the full story. Who understood that the battle of good and evil was never about choosing a side, but about accepting that we all carry a duality that is necessary for us to grow and learn. Who learned their lessons when simple actions like beliefs became ugly in their consequences and derailed the true progress of our potentials.
If you’re like me and are tired of the prices that we continue to pay by not fighting the established, then we need to laugh at the sarcasm that shows in the above text. Just as we need to help those who see a future that is much different from the present that we are all drowning in. The good guys are no longer as obvious as we once thought they were. Even our stories show that heroes such as Superman and other such warriors are not so clean-cut in their intentions. When intentions get strangled in human greed (and they somehow always do), then other heroes must take the place of the original. That logic shows us that there CAN be a hero in each one of us, and the potential is simply waiting to be discovered by us. Potential is our magic that just might build a wider and more colorful future.
Do we choose to be a hero because it brings us acceptance, or do we choose to become a hero because the world needs us to step up? That’s a question that only you can answer. But having a whole lot of heroes working together is what we all need if we want things to be different. Words are cheap, and there are a lot of words out there to swim through in order to find the right ones. Who we choose to be a temporary beacon of hope is important, if we want other heroes to show their actions for good possibilities. The price we pay can no longer be about chasing a shallow acceptance, when we’re all so different by a deeper design. Differences make possibilities come alive. Acceptance smothers possibilities so that creativity and innovation are controlled by the present. The future, for us and everything on this tiny world, requires that we change from belief to a possibility that can’t be caught by what we consider normal.
Take this from someone who has had to answer the question, WHAT ARE YOU, throughout her life. There are a a lot of you out there who know what I’m talking about. Do we want to change a system that only worries about checkboxes that label us incompletely, or do we finally build a new way that no longer worries so much about acceptance in its current context? No one should fit into a single checkbox!
…just saying
