Against the Grain
The beauty of going to school is that you get a bazillion new things to think about and even more ways to think about things you already think about. The trial of school is that you get a bazillion new things to think about and even more ways to think about things you already think about.
I've known a lot of people who have gone through an era of their lives where they kind of wake up and look around and realize that everything they thought they believed is kind of crap and has gotten them nowhere. I know even more people who have been confronted with the idea that maybe everything they think is crap and they just return to it, feeling safe. That awakening or awareness can be about anything from religion to their beliefs about fitness or sexuality...they just kind of snap one day and think....man....Ive been kind of dead inside.
It's really the best part of any story. It's the turn, or crisis. You have your eyes opened to something and you just can't turn back. You can't accept the world as it was before. It's the moment the fat girl joins crossfit, or the moment someone afraid of heights jumps out of plane, or the moment the self conscious mommy drops her towel and poses naked. They stop thinking one way and flip a switch that can never be turned off again. They've seen too much and are now more enlightened than they were before. There is no going back.
I've kind of wanted one of those turns my whole life. Trouble is, you can't manufacture them. You can't walk into a sunset and suddenly un-believe everything you have mistakenly thought. It's usually something really big and really scary that sparks the shifting of paradigms.
I have been thinking a lot about conformity. Not in just traditional ways we think about it like style and language, but conformity of faith and beliefs, and behaviors and ideology and just everything.
The grain is an interesting thing. In most ways we all go with it. But who really controls the grain? A wind blows against us and we all just lie down. If the people around us lie down for something we all lie down too. A new book changes one person's life and we all lie down and buy the book. A rack full of magazines only shows skinny girls on their cover and we all lie down and go on diets. One of our friends has a $20,000 wedding and we all lie down and get a pinterest page for our wedding. A guy in the locker room talks about sleeping with 15 people and all the other guys want the same. Someone says dairy causes them gas and everyone lies down and drinks almond milk.
And then one little grain stands up and says,
"I don't like the way this is going...I'm going to go a different way."
rebels.
The grain effects us all though...Theres a Christian grain, a postmodern grain, a rich kid grain....we're all trying so hard to fit into this field or that field that we forget we aren't wheat. What a tragic waste of the uniqueness of each individual to spend so much effort to try and read the same books and eat the same fad diet. (I mean, I know at least 40 christians who are eating the paleo diet (the caveman diet) and don't even believe in cavemen.) Bending over for societal waves is a waste, it encourages stereotypes and disables us from being able to hear and see each other as individuals. Plus it's exhausting. Lying down and getting up again. To stay with the grain means that you will only be reading the top 100 of the 130 million published books. To stay with the grain means that you might likely have 5 of the exact same conversations every week forever. If you only buy the clothing that the grain buys you'll likely be wearing the same outfit as 200 other people in your city. (all those numbers were gross estimates except the number of published books which i googled but its impossible to know...so even that was a guess...)
What's wrong with us?
Bad question...
Can we not celebrate what is right with us? What is right with me? What is right with you? God put so much work into making us individuals...different finger prints, different taste buds, different irises, different DNA strands...Why are we wasting so much life trying to be like the person beside us?!
And why do we hide our uniqueness under target scarves and colloquialisms?
And why is our first method of defense against a grain who's going against us to be judgemental?
Why can't we celebrate people who are different from us and be celebrating thus be celebrating God at the same time?
Why have we labeled different as bad?
And do I really want you to conform to what I'm saying?
I've known a lot of people who have gone through an era of their lives where they kind of wake up and look around and realize that everything they thought they believed is kind of crap and has gotten them nowhere. I know even more people who have been confronted with the idea that maybe everything they think is crap and they just return to it, feeling safe. That awakening or awareness can be about anything from religion to their beliefs about fitness or sexuality...they just kind of snap one day and think....man....Ive been kind of dead inside.
It's really the best part of any story. It's the turn, or crisis. You have your eyes opened to something and you just can't turn back. You can't accept the world as it was before. It's the moment the fat girl joins crossfit, or the moment someone afraid of heights jumps out of plane, or the moment the self conscious mommy drops her towel and poses naked. They stop thinking one way and flip a switch that can never be turned off again. They've seen too much and are now more enlightened than they were before. There is no going back.
I've kind of wanted one of those turns my whole life. Trouble is, you can't manufacture them. You can't walk into a sunset and suddenly un-believe everything you have mistakenly thought. It's usually something really big and really scary that sparks the shifting of paradigms.
I have been thinking a lot about conformity. Not in just traditional ways we think about it like style and language, but conformity of faith and beliefs, and behaviors and ideology and just everything.
The grain is an interesting thing. In most ways we all go with it. But who really controls the grain? A wind blows against us and we all just lie down. If the people around us lie down for something we all lie down too. A new book changes one person's life and we all lie down and buy the book. A rack full of magazines only shows skinny girls on their cover and we all lie down and go on diets. One of our friends has a $20,000 wedding and we all lie down and get a pinterest page for our wedding. A guy in the locker room talks about sleeping with 15 people and all the other guys want the same. Someone says dairy causes them gas and everyone lies down and drinks almond milk.
And then one little grain stands up and says,
"I don't like the way this is going...I'm going to go a different way."
rebels.
The grain effects us all though...Theres a Christian grain, a postmodern grain, a rich kid grain....we're all trying so hard to fit into this field or that field that we forget we aren't wheat. What a tragic waste of the uniqueness of each individual to spend so much effort to try and read the same books and eat the same fad diet. (I mean, I know at least 40 christians who are eating the paleo diet (the caveman diet) and don't even believe in cavemen.) Bending over for societal waves is a waste, it encourages stereotypes and disables us from being able to hear and see each other as individuals. Plus it's exhausting. Lying down and getting up again. To stay with the grain means that you will only be reading the top 100 of the 130 million published books. To stay with the grain means that you might likely have 5 of the exact same conversations every week forever. If you only buy the clothing that the grain buys you'll likely be wearing the same outfit as 200 other people in your city. (all those numbers were gross estimates except the number of published books which i googled but its impossible to know...so even that was a guess...)
What's wrong with us?
Bad question...
Can we not celebrate what is right with us? What is right with me? What is right with you? God put so much work into making us individuals...different finger prints, different taste buds, different irises, different DNA strands...Why are we wasting so much life trying to be like the person beside us?!
And why do we hide our uniqueness under target scarves and colloquialisms?
And why is our first method of defense against a grain who's going against us to be judgemental?
Why can't we celebrate people who are different from us and be celebrating thus be celebrating God at the same time?
Why have we labeled different as bad?
And do I really want you to conform to what I'm saying?
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