Yellow flowers at every mailbox. White sheets on every bed. Red lipstick on every painted lip. Can you see a problem with this picture?
I was working on a promotional poster for my dad this week, exploring ways to make a line of text pop out. Why? Because it looked funny to be set apart from the text above it and yet be styled the same. Once I changed the lower line to be different, both bodies of text worked better together. Each section had to be unique for both of them to stand out and be their best. The metaphor today is about the need for diversity.
The media has a prescription for what the ideal body type should be. Society defines success and happiness. Culture tells us how we should behave. Our youth learn to play it safe and achieve security. None of these offers one-size-fits-all solutions. What is right for one couldn’t be more wrong for another.
We work together better when we are different.
Are you different but you feel self-conscious or ashamed about that so you hide some of who you are to blend in? Do you tend to be critical when you see other people daring to be themselves even when that means they are considered different by today's standards?
I hope the next time you find yourself in one of those roles or both of them like I sometimes am, take a moment to imagine a world where every house has yellow flowers at the mailbox, every bed has white sheets and every painted lip is red. Utopia might be nice for a day but it would get old really quick. So why do we demand it from ourselves and one another?
What if we all resolved to be more of our unique selves in 2019, celebrating and encouraging our neighbors to do the same? That’s where I want to live. Have a wonderfully different 2019!
