Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Day 3 - Unique

Hah! I'm back on track. It's the eve of Day 3...and I'm here to pester you. Mwuaa haa haa... Oh yeah, I'm on it.

Here's the Blessing: Day 3: "Thank God for the way He made you. You are special, distinct, and unique. You were not made from a common mold.” - Erwin Lutzer

I've already delved deeply into my support of this notion on Avalon's site. I don't feel a great need to repeat myself, so I want to approach this from a different angle as we chat this evening. Rather than constantly having to remind people they were born unique...I want to ask,

"Why in the Hades does the world keep trying to make us all ALIKE?!"

I mean, seriously, think about it. We all go about our daily lives wishing we were just like HER. (or him, or her again I suppose ~ if that's your flavor...) Every damn thing we watch on television, see in a magazine, hear on the radio...tells us there is something dreadfully wrong with us if we don't eat like her, dress like her, drive a car like his, think like him. Every ad, every talk show, every self-help book says the same thing. 'Do this, think this, act like this...or you're doing it WRONG."

Phhhthhhtttt... to all of them that insist so 'insistingly' that I'm wrong. (In case you don't read phhhthttt, that's a gigundus raspberry, and it's aimed directly at all those do-gooders.)

No really, I couldn't be more serious. Who in the Hades do these people think they are? Oh sure, they have fancy degrees and umpteen zillion years in school, purgatory, or whatever torture chamber they willingly tossed themselves in. BUT...they all seem to be missing a gigantic slice of the pie of intellect. People are DIFFERENT.

I don't two figs and hooter what they think. There is a reason we learn about the 'bell curve' in even the simplest of statistics classes. Any group, of any thing, for any purpose, will NOT produce perfect numbers. When you gather data about a group, that data will cluster. But thing about the cluster is that it's NEVER a perfect stack above one value. Noooo-ooooo my friends. A "bell curve" means that data will stack up around one value...but that it will also exist and taper off both below and above the most popular value. It's not possible to stack all data at one point...so WHY do we keep telling people they have to squeeze themselves there?

Should people value their families and spend their every waking hour shaping the lives of their children? Nope. Heck, a good number of humans I've met would be much better off if they'd forgo the entire notion of reproducing. But noooo, society says they must, so off they go. Why force that? Not everyone should be a parent. Why aren't we as supportive of non-parenting? Why force people into roles they don't want, and won't be good at?

Should people get an education? Duh. I'm not advocating dropping out and taking up beer swilling as an occupation. What I'm saying is that college isn't for everyone. Each person needs to choose their path - and not feel one bit inferior if they take the road less traveled.

Should people try to be as healthy as possible? Super Duh. But damn-it-all, each of us inhabit a different vessel. Some of our vessels fight us at every turn. 'Eat less, move more'. I LOATHE that simplistic statement. I've eaten as few as 600 calories a day (on the advice of a DOCTOR), and exercised vigorously every one of those days...and gained weight. To whit, the specialist who ordered the diet (along with my family doctor at the time) accused me of lying. Did either Dr. try to help? Did they listen to my pleading, my despondancy? Nope. They crammed me right smack in the middle of that stupid bell curve. When the reality is, I'm a floatin' somewhere waaaaay out on the rim. I needed rim answers, not hump-a-dump easy ones.

I could go on ad nauseum...but I won't. I think you get the point. I believe God DID make each of us unique. My problem is that it's become socially unacceptable to be distinctive.

I'm a 43 year old stay at home mom. I have waistlength hair and a love of funky jewelry. I adore beautiful shoes, but hate pain. I'm quite comfortable in my combat boots, so I wear them. My favorite skirt came from a Rennaissance festival. It's nearly floorlength, and is made of hundreds of small patches of brightly colored fabric. I wear rings on almost all of my fingers because they were given to me by people I love and they make me happy. I'm way overweight, and struggle mightily with food on a daily basis. (I'm allergic to everything - food hates me) I'm also intelligent, witty, loving, and passionate. The problem is, the last statement is often lost in the facts that came before it. Society says I can't possibly be smart or personable....I dress weird and I'm fat. I must be simple.

I'm sick to death of it! Who cares if I'm over 40 and have long hair? I swear I don't spontaneously gobble up small children and store them in there. And what's an extra few rings to people? Last time I checked, I've never used them as a set a brass knuckles, so what's the big deal? Why on earth does staying home to enjoy and educate my children automatically classify me as a subhuman blob? Heads up, I'm mensa qualified. Super ultra phhhthhhtttt to those who question my 'smarticle particles'. (Suite Life on Deck joke - tossed in for my kids) I might walk slightly off the beaten path...but why in the name of Budda's butt should that matter to anyone?

Well, it shouldn't. Erwin Lutzer was dead on. We ARE all unique, distinctive, interesting creatures. It's high time we appreciated that in each other. Society needs to stop cramming we octagonal pegs into the square holes. We 'ain't gonna fit'. No how, no way. And there's not one thing wrong with that.

Pffffttttttt.... Nope, that wasn't another raspberry. That, my friends, was a virtual fart. I pass gas in the general direction of anyone who attempts to mold me into the mass image.

Pfffttttttttt.......................

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