Celebration of Same

I don't have kids but almost everyone I know does.  I get to do a lot of objective observation and my friends and family have humored me often and have honored me with their time to listen thoughtfully to my ideas.  This particular observation extends well beyond kid-dom but I think it is where it begins.  

You are so stubborn, just like your father.  Your eyes are so beautiful, just like your mothers.  You need to behave more like your friends. You put your milk on the same shelf I do. 

I hear these statements of sameness often.  Sometimes celebrated but often noted.  I rarely hear the same enthusiasm for a recognized difference.  

I like to refer to the writings of other authors when they have already said it well.

"With that fear of being punished and that fear of not getting the reward, we start pretending to be what we are not, just to please others, just to be good enough for someone else.  We try to please Mom and Dad, we try to please the teachers at school, we try to please the church, and so we start acting.  We pretend to be what we are not because we are afraid of being rejected.  The fear of being rejected becomes the fear of not being good enough.  Eventually we become someone that we are not.  We become a copy of Mamma's beliefs, Daddy's beliefs, society's beliefs, and religion's beliefs." ~The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz (1997)

I recognize that we often believe things are easier when we are all the same, we are not made uncomfortable, we are not challenged.  If we surround ourselves with sameness that is all that will result, more of the same.  We elected a president who used the simple campaign slogan "Change", it is obvious that Americans are looking for change.  Perhaps we could all start at home and stop breeding the same.