About Your Own Thing

Post 97:

            Mimicry is inevitable, as is the desire to be original. A conundrum, and no small one. Not sure there are small conundrums, now that I think about it.

            So what am I getting at here? Mainly, that we wouldn’t be alive without mimicking. We do as our parents do, our older siblings, our friends, you know, the people that have mimicked other people—we do this for survival’s sake.

            Then we get old enough to look both ways before crossing the road, and have to decide how much to emulate the people that have gone before us in whatever field we choose. I’m talking our line of work, now.

            We’re adults. We want to forge our own thing, but… only if it works. Is it better to unoriginal and well fed than a starving trailblazer?

            Oh, I expect this is where you think I’m going to provide some semblance of an answer. Ok. My opinion, I’m thinking it’s case by case. Only a fool would talk in absolutes on this one. And there are simply jobs out there that don’t allow a lot of wiggle room. I’ve had them myself. It is nice to have a place for your brain and hands and body to be itself, and a large part of that battle is just locating the place. If you don’t have that place, keep looking. When you get there, stretch out, think that thought, totally do the opposite of conform. And if you don’t feel like it, screw me. That’s the beauty of being your own entity.

            Just don’t go all the way with the originality bit. There’s a reason why everyone else is looking before they cross the street. See you after.