Individuality

December 6individuality,white pelicans,university lake

I am thankful for individuality. If all of us were the same it would be a pretty boring world. I have always enjoyed unique individuals.They make me laugh, they are worthy of admiration, and they amaze me. I suppose individuality can be taken a bit far sometimes. But I'm not counting. I sometimes take it to extremes to the detriment of not getting other people's opinions. When I was in the throws of stressing about what to do about a bad water heater, Bebe asked me this very day, "Why is it that men refuse to ask advice or directions?" Perhaps it is men. But it could be me to a fault.

Never mind that negative thought. This blog is supposed to be about things for which I am thankful. And I am thankful to be stubborn, independent, and proud. So there!

I did a blog about originality on July 31. Originality is similar to individuality. Both speak of novelty but there are subtle differences. Originality means that you are not a copy of someone else. You are unique in all that you do. Individuality means you are independent and self reliant. You can be self reliant without being original. I do like the originality aspect, doing or thinking of something fresh and unique. But some things are so status quo that it is difficult to find a completely new way that has never been tried before. As I age, I believe more and more that all good ideas have been thought of before. Individuality implies that you can go beyond originality of having a unique idea, to proceeding to do something about it. I found a quote on the internet from someone named Jaseem Kapoor that I really like: "Be the first version of yourself rather than the second version of someone else."

This is the current flock of white pelicans around the University Lakes which I took a couple of weeks ago. They are really interesting to watch. They tend to do everything as a group. They swim in the same direction, they follow one another, and rarely break ranks. I just happened to snap the picture at the time this particular one decided to fly a little while the others swam. I consider him to be a model for individuality. It's not original for a pelican to fly. But it is an individual act which is going against the grain at that particular time.

individuality

if you want me to follow you

you’ve got to understand

i can only be myself

and not at your command.

© rt tulley