BE THE BEST AT WHO YOU ARE!

"Though it may cost you your life, live every second with conviction. Don't just join the band wagon for the sake of it. If you have to, be different. Make a difference. matter!"

I wrote this as my status message on facebook (Bless Zuckerberg!) and left it there for all of 20 minutes before realising that it might not be the best thing to do. So I scratched it. Why?

As individuals, I believe that its important for us to allow our own unique paths in life and backgrounds to define who we are without necessarily feeling any sense of superiority or inferiority (in relation to others) as result of these experiences. They are, if you like, our blueprint. And therefore, in my opinion, I would describe it a travesty to throw all that away merely because we are trying to 'fit in'. Each one of us has unique abilities placed in us to be effective at whatever we do (and hopefully better than anyone else ever) and the only way to discover these abilities is by exploring ourselves. Jumping on the band wagon will not do this for us! Therefore, our unique view points, really should be celebrated and not surpressed in any way.

I am not a biologist but we can draw an example from genetics. The gene pool is sometimes strengthened from having mutations occur. These changes can sometimes be detrimental, however, on the whole, it makes for continued survival of the species mainly because by diversifying the possible expressions of the organism, unforeseen adverse physical conditions are taken care of in advance (I warned you already. Not a biologist!). Overall, this is a positive thing because it means that a given organism, or an entire race of animals can outlast some catastrophe. For similar reasons, it's a bad idea to marry your cousin.

Bringing it back to the original discussion, it becomes easy to see why differences really and truly should be celebrated because we stand to gain a lot more as a society by retaining and holding on to our different senses of identity and being comfortable within it without necessarily trying to be anyone else. Our combined differences hold a plethora of skills, strengths and abilities that can and should be taken advantage of; advantages that the underprivileged, particularly, can benefit from. Now, this is what I meant when I put the message status up yesterday. However, I took it down almost immediately because it occured to me that this also can be misconstrued in quite a number of ways.

To put this in perspective; I write because I enjoy writing and expressing my thoughts. To me this is valid. Events upto this point in my life have led to me taking pleasure in this activity. Some other person might justify joyriding because they see it as the only way for Insurance companies to pay up for the service they have promised. Yet another's experiences might have taught them it's alright to rob banks because the public gets stolen from everyday. Three 'valid' points of view, but there are flaws in some of them. All three view points are associated with a strong sense of conviction and to each proponent, their's is valid, but not all are necessarily without consequence.

Bottom line is, I don't believe having convictions about our actions alone is necessarily universally valid enough as reason to actually carry them out. If everyone ran around acting out their convictions, there might be anarchy! Hence, the strong need for individualism is correct, however, it must remain within the confines of an established collective domain. No one can dictate here, rather I'd just say "be the best you can be being who you are, without leaving behind any trail of negative consequences for yourself or others". But hey, that's just what I'd say ..