Are you Distinct?

The Man who follows the crowd will usually get no further than
the crowd. The man who walks alone is likely to find himself in places
no one has been before.

Creativity in living is not without its attendant difficulties, for peculiarity
breeds contempt. And the unfortunate thing about being
ahead of your time is that when people finally realize you were right,
they’ll say it was obvious all along.

You have two choices in life: you can dissolve into the mainstream,
or you can be distinct. To be distinct, you must be different. To be
different, you must strive to be what no one else but you can be.

Will you choose to go along with the crowd or be distinct? 

I have been distinct my entire life. Yet most people try to follow the crowd and present themselves as acceptable. I find this sad in many ways because you are not your true self. You are not awake or feeling alive but are living the same way every one else lives. It is not what your true self really wants to do. It is the reason that people have to find themselves. They have ignored the unique person that they really are in life. They are so eager and worried about being accepted by the crowd that they are one dimensional. They project the image and never like themselves enough to realize that others opinions do not matter. It is their inner opinion of  what they are that counts in life.  A person who is their true self is unique. They are distinct and different. People always try to make fun of or ignore others who are different.

It is a form of intolerance and that is deadly. Intolerance of others and trying to fit them into your judgments and expectations can be cruel and heartbreaking. It is a form of bullying others and harassment. I know in job appointments and other forms of employment in this world we are doomed to act in a certain fashion to keep the job. Yet in many ways this attitude stifles creativity. If you look at all of the people who are successful in what they want to do none of them follow the crowd. All of them are different and unique.

A real person is happy and accepts themselves. They know that they may not be liked by everyone but they like themselves. The people who go with the crowd always act bad because they would love to have the courage to be themselves. They will never understand that they can never lose themselves if they like themselves. I have seen many people who are successful in the stressful jobs where they have to project a certain image admit that they would prefer to do anything but that in their lives. 

The next time you see an unusual person talk to them and enjoy them. It might surprise you at how you can enjoy your life.  You may learn about your true self and stop projecting an image that is not you or your life.

Be Safe While Being Yourself

I have times where I am so busy I do not find inspiration on what to write in a blog. Today a message made me think about how people treat others. The common denominator in all mass murders of racial groups has also been religion, sexual orientation and race. The Holocaust and the Jews, Gypsies, Gays, and Christians that were slaughtered by Hitler. The conflict in Bosnia and other places where it was Christians and Muslims. The conflicts between the Muslims and the Kurds. The Witch Burnings.The list could go on forever as the Muslims in India were actually conquered people forced to be Muslims. The Japanese also killed Christians that would not leave their country centuries ago.

So what religions cause this conflict while professing to be doing everything for God. You see a pattern over the years where you can say "Wow this religion is everywhere in all of those battles". You then see the ones that are active religions trying to weed out everyone that is not of that religion and forcing them to convert. It is that or be killed or abused.

The main ways this is done is by picking scapegoats to blame everything upon and put the force of religion behind doing this so it is acceptable. It is acceptable to preach at everyone and speak badly of them if you are of a certain religion and decide everyone has to follow that religions rules. In many places killing the person is acceptable when the person is found out. Yet the scapegoats are only being used to hide issues that the people are not supposed to know. If anyone reads or watches the History channel you can see the scapegoats screaming over the centuries.

I have heard in recent years of many abuses. Gays being beheaded, women who marry someone of a different religion being stoned to death are the most dramatic. Yet how many people think of supposedly civilized countries and how they treat people differently. The message of picking a scapegoat or person to blame is widespread to the point of being ridiculous.

It means that everyone who is different and who is honest and truthful about themselves has a chance of being a scapegoat and being abused. It is acceptable to do this and it crosses racial barriers of every kind. I have met blacks who hated whites more than any whites I know of hated them. I see people who do not do their work properly finding it acceptable to make someone else to blame for it and think they did the right thing. I have seen gay males who never had sex with a woman hate women.

On the other side I see Christians who hate others while professing how they are right. God and Christ are supposed to be deities of love. Muslims who feel blowing up innocents is right to do. Shoving religions down someones throat as if they had not heard about the religion. CNN had a recent report about people being disillusioned about their religions and leaving them. It goes across all levels of society.

It all boils down to the people who are religious being focused on themselves and what they want to have happen. It is about me, I, and I am more important than these other people. Religion adds in the God loves me and would not want the world to have XYZ or by what ever name deity is called by the person. It is being sure that you are right and everyone else is wrong. It is being judgemental and manipulative. It is normally sugar coated with the it is the will of God, God spoke against this or some other factor when religion is added into it so even God wants you to do this scapegoating to others.

I find this an abomination of how to treat others. Yet I know I am not more important nor am I going to judge and manipulate things to harm others. Yet anyone who is different in this world has to consider a few things. Am I shoving this down others throats or just being myself? Do I accept others judgements of me?

Being to far on the other side inflames the people who can not stand to see someone or something different. It can make you as bad as them if you scapegoat them back over the issue. It is finding a balance in how you can be yourself and not making everyone else suffer over being different. I wonder what this world would be like if everyone liked, loved and accepted the differences with out having to be right.

It can also make it so the person who is different is abused, killed, stripped of their children and many other things done by society to those who do not conform to their rules. I watch myself and try to do better each time I make a mistake. I am not politically correct which is just another way to make people different. I do like people and I do not scapegoat anyone.

If someone is different and you do not care for them as a person that is one thing. You gave them a chance as a person. They were given the chance to be someone you liked or disliked with out sex, race, sexual orientation, religion or anything else added into it. It is not about you, what you think, whether you are right or what you feel they should be. It is about whether you like them as a person.

It is what everyone should strive for seeing each other as individual people and enjoying the difference.