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- Story Listed as: True Life For Adults
- Theme: Inspirational
- Subject: Personal Growth / Achievement
- Published: 04/19/2014
THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS
Born 1969, M, from Herten, NRW, GermanyWe’ve all heard it. Maybe some of us even believe in it. I’ve even written articles about it. But it all comes from the assumption that there is such a thing as “ordinary” at all.
“We’re all the same,” they say.
But have you ever thought of the fact that respecting every single individual as unique is actually what we need to achieve world peace?
Labelling yourself as “ordinary”, you are actually not only closing yourself off towards accepting yourself as a unique individual, you are also closing yourself off towards accepting others as unique individuals as well. What does that mean – actually? It means that if someone does not accept your definitions of “ordinary”, they are discarded.
Let’s say your definition of what is “ordinary” is having a house, a boat, a job from 9 to 5, vacuum cleaning your house every day at five and showering every day. But what if there is someone that says that everyone he knows works at night, lives in a tent, showers in the evening and travels all the time. What if he believes in Allah or in Brahma (which essentially are other names for God) and chooses to live in the street?
How does a person who defines “ordinary” react to that?
If a hippie and a businessman accept each other as unique and like it, they will both learn from each other. Embrace each other’s individuality.
Your willingness to accept everything and everyone as unique defines you. If you do that, you will be more likely to accept many more things. “Ordinary” is always a surface generalization. When you look deeper, there is always more to see. When you take two people, who are similar to class, upbringing and social stature, look at them superficially, then you will always at first glance say that they are similar. But when you look at them closer, you see that they are both unique.
The mistake is to say that emphasizing individuality will breed struggle. Neale Donald Walsch says in his book “Conversations with God” that human beings have the bad habit of seeing everything the wrong way around. Being different is not necessarily a problem. In fact, we can always learn from each other. Everybody wants to be respected. Everbody is different. If everyone gave each other respect, then we would have less war. Everyone wants attention. We would certainly struggle, but I think by accepting people as they are and not what we want them to be, we would minimize hatred.
I think more harm has been done by forcing people to be like everyone else and taking away their freedom than any other acts in history. It is often said that we should accentuate the similarities. Certainly. But if we learn to accept that people are unique, even love that people are unique, then we can count on loving each other more. We will not be angry if someone else is different, if they wear a shawl over their head or don’t eat pork or marry people of the same sex or speak another language. We will in fact be happy if they are different. We can learn from them.
Basically, people need freedom.
Why?
Because people need freedom to be themselves.
Why?
They are unique.
See.
“Ordinary” does not exist.
It never has.
But we need each other. No man is an island. We have to marry, fall in love, have children, live together, we are dependant on each other.
One can say that in our differences we are one.
Although we are many, we are the same, because we are all human.
We are one race of unique beings.
So, cutting off everyone’s head to fit a mold does not work.
Respecting each other as one race of unique beings, different and yet the same, will.
Nazi Germany did what? Kill the people that were different. That came from what? Assuming that there was such a thing as a all encompassing perfect norm at all. Arian, perfect, blonde, blue-eyed, smiling, no scars, no mistakes, no big noses. What is strange about that Arian norm? The leader Adolf Hitler was brown-eyed, brown-haired, had Jewish ancestors, was not at all as good looking as the people he wanted people to become. He certainly made many mistakes and he had a girlfriend that was part-Jewish.
Now, you tell me where the logic is in that. The most terrible conformed idealogy in the world, a political movement that killed everyone that was different, was founded by a crazy bomb-injured World War I-veteran who was very un-conformist. You might as well have chosen an Jewish Nazi. Why did no one ever think of the fact that Adolf Hitler’s ideology had no foundation at all? He was quite Non-Arian.
Basically, “ordinary” only works within the confines of a certain class or group of people, who claim they are the same anyway, which they can never be. If you really want world peace, you have to treat others the way you yourself would want to be treated anyway: being respected for being special, having unique feelings and a being person worth loving.
There is a simpler way of describing this.
It has a word:
Tolerance.
Now, nothing works without a counterpart.
Light does not work without darkness, love does not work without fear, ordinary does not work without something special.
But as I said, “ordinary” is an invention.
Special can’t be an invention. It mirrors the reality that is the truth: the inner microcosmos that signifies the invidual experience and the unique personality.
The most amazing example of this you will find in the cult of fame.
Recently, I saw a young pop star on TV, no more than 19. The young interviewer asked the girl questions that might have been asked a veteran. But the young pop star could not have had much experience. But that didn’t matter. The fact that she was famous was enough to assume that she was experienced. But why not interview a baker about his life? Or a policeman? He would certainly have some stories to tell.
Or the physical rehabilitation centre I trained in after an accident, where I was surrounded by famous soccer stars. They trained alongside myself, in their professional soccer gear, noticed by no one at all. In the canteen, surrounded by the press, they became hounded by fans. They were expected to be stars there. After all, the press was there. In the fitness centre, they were just “ordinary” citizens. But they were the same people.
Or Joan Collins, who regularly went to the unemployment office before getting her breakthrough role in “Dynasty”. She was asked by a fan why she was there at all.
“I need money,” was her answer.
Fame is an illusion. Your definition of success is as unique as you are. What is your definition of success? Famous people are just normal, unique people who became successful individuals. They have to eat, sleep and go to the bathroom just like you.
Michael Jackson was noticed by fans one day, who told each other: “Is that Michael?” – “No,” said the other one. “Why should he be here?”
Why, indeed. He had to be somewhere on the face of this Earth on a given time of the day. I was associated with Luciano Pavarotti at one time, walking out of a concert location after an audition, and noticed how opera students didn’t even notice him walking out next to him, because they didn’t expect him to be there.
Per Gessle of the rock group Roxette once said:
“After you become famous, you don’t change much, but everyone else does.”
So, next time you say that you are an ordinary chap or chick, but that Antonio Banderas and the Queen of England are not, think again. They are just as unique as you. And I bet they have moments where they slouch on the TV-couch just like you.
You define what you are.
After all, you are just as unique as everyone else and you can learn from other people who are unique as well, but in another way.
That is why we never stop learning.
The possibilities are endless.
We need each other, we have to love each other, we have to respect each other as special as we are or can be ourselves.
THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS(Charles E.J. Moulton)
We’ve all heard it. Maybe some of us even believe in it. I’ve even written articles about it. But it all comes from the assumption that there is such a thing as “ordinary” at all.
“We’re all the same,” they say.
But have you ever thought of the fact that respecting every single individual as unique is actually what we need to achieve world peace?
Labelling yourself as “ordinary”, you are actually not only closing yourself off towards accepting yourself as a unique individual, you are also closing yourself off towards accepting others as unique individuals as well. What does that mean – actually? It means that if someone does not accept your definitions of “ordinary”, they are discarded.
Let’s say your definition of what is “ordinary” is having a house, a boat, a job from 9 to 5, vacuum cleaning your house every day at five and showering every day. But what if there is someone that says that everyone he knows works at night, lives in a tent, showers in the evening and travels all the time. What if he believes in Allah or in Brahma (which essentially are other names for God) and chooses to live in the street?
How does a person who defines “ordinary” react to that?
If a hippie and a businessman accept each other as unique and like it, they will both learn from each other. Embrace each other’s individuality.
Your willingness to accept everything and everyone as unique defines you. If you do that, you will be more likely to accept many more things. “Ordinary” is always a surface generalization. When you look deeper, there is always more to see. When you take two people, who are similar to class, upbringing and social stature, look at them superficially, then you will always at first glance say that they are similar. But when you look at them closer, you see that they are both unique.
The mistake is to say that emphasizing individuality will breed struggle. Neale Donald Walsch says in his book “Conversations with God” that human beings have the bad habit of seeing everything the wrong way around. Being different is not necessarily a problem. In fact, we can always learn from each other. Everybody wants to be respected. Everbody is different. If everyone gave each other respect, then we would have less war. Everyone wants attention. We would certainly struggle, but I think by accepting people as they are and not what we want them to be, we would minimize hatred.
I think more harm has been done by forcing people to be like everyone else and taking away their freedom than any other acts in history. It is often said that we should accentuate the similarities. Certainly. But if we learn to accept that people are unique, even love that people are unique, then we can count on loving each other more. We will not be angry if someone else is different, if they wear a shawl over their head or don’t eat pork or marry people of the same sex or speak another language. We will in fact be happy if they are different. We can learn from them.
Basically, people need freedom.
Why?
Because people need freedom to be themselves.
Why?
They are unique.
See.
“Ordinary” does not exist.
It never has.
But we need each other. No man is an island. We have to marry, fall in love, have children, live together, we are dependant on each other.
One can say that in our differences we are one.
Although we are many, we are the same, because we are all human.
We are one race of unique beings.
So, cutting off everyone’s head to fit a mold does not work.
Respecting each other as one race of unique beings, different and yet the same, will.
Nazi Germany did what? Kill the people that were different. That came from what? Assuming that there was such a thing as a all encompassing perfect norm at all. Arian, perfect, blonde, blue-eyed, smiling, no scars, no mistakes, no big noses. What is strange about that Arian norm? The leader Adolf Hitler was brown-eyed, brown-haired, had Jewish ancestors, was not at all as good looking as the people he wanted people to become. He certainly made many mistakes and he had a girlfriend that was part-Jewish.
Now, you tell me where the logic is in that. The most terrible conformed idealogy in the world, a political movement that killed everyone that was different, was founded by a crazy bomb-injured World War I-veteran who was very un-conformist. You might as well have chosen an Jewish Nazi. Why did no one ever think of the fact that Adolf Hitler’s ideology had no foundation at all? He was quite Non-Arian.
Basically, “ordinary” only works within the confines of a certain class or group of people, who claim they are the same anyway, which they can never be. If you really want world peace, you have to treat others the way you yourself would want to be treated anyway: being respected for being special, having unique feelings and a being person worth loving.
There is a simpler way of describing this.
It has a word:
Tolerance.
Now, nothing works without a counterpart.
Light does not work without darkness, love does not work without fear, ordinary does not work without something special.
But as I said, “ordinary” is an invention.
Special can’t be an invention. It mirrors the reality that is the truth: the inner microcosmos that signifies the invidual experience and the unique personality.
The most amazing example of this you will find in the cult of fame.
Recently, I saw a young pop star on TV, no more than 19. The young interviewer asked the girl questions that might have been asked a veteran. But the young pop star could not have had much experience. But that didn’t matter. The fact that she was famous was enough to assume that she was experienced. But why not interview a baker about his life? Or a policeman? He would certainly have some stories to tell.
Or the physical rehabilitation centre I trained in after an accident, where I was surrounded by famous soccer stars. They trained alongside myself, in their professional soccer gear, noticed by no one at all. In the canteen, surrounded by the press, they became hounded by fans. They were expected to be stars there. After all, the press was there. In the fitness centre, they were just “ordinary” citizens. But they were the same people.
Or Joan Collins, who regularly went to the unemployment office before getting her breakthrough role in “Dynasty”. She was asked by a fan why she was there at all.
“I need money,” was her answer.
Fame is an illusion. Your definition of success is as unique as you are. What is your definition of success? Famous people are just normal, unique people who became successful individuals. They have to eat, sleep and go to the bathroom just like you.
Michael Jackson was noticed by fans one day, who told each other: “Is that Michael?” – “No,” said the other one. “Why should he be here?”
Why, indeed. He had to be somewhere on the face of this Earth on a given time of the day. I was associated with Luciano Pavarotti at one time, walking out of a concert location after an audition, and noticed how opera students didn’t even notice him walking out next to him, because they didn’t expect him to be there.
Per Gessle of the rock group Roxette once said:
“After you become famous, you don’t change much, but everyone else does.”
So, next time you say that you are an ordinary chap or chick, but that Antonio Banderas and the Queen of England are not, think again. They are just as unique as you. And I bet they have moments where they slouch on the TV-couch just like you.
You define what you are.
After all, you are just as unique as everyone else and you can learn from other people who are unique as well, but in another way.
That is why we never stop learning.
The possibilities are endless.
We need each other, we have to love each other, we have to respect each other as special as we are or can be ourselves.
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