one
thousand words daily
Day: 8 against the grain
Owning the
audacity to do something different or being something different than the norm
of what is often expected takes a large pair of nutts or ovaries. That’s right, I said it, some cahones! Doing the exact opposite and shooting towards
those goals others might perceive impossible, unattainable or just plain
unrealistic to their meager standards and lack of vision is very courageous! When I think about “going against the grain,”
I think about the design and makeup of shark skin. Shark skin it is almost impossible to rub
your hand against the opposing grain of without badly scratching or cutting
yourself.
pic From sharksinfo.com
My fiancé just
reminded me of a feline’s tongue and I, as someone who used to be a veterinarian,
remember how big cats such as lions can slowly rip the meat off of bones with
their very rough tongues. I guess we
can conclude from these observations that deciding to “go against the grain,”
can sometimes be painful. While
exploration for some can be painful in regards to struggles and through the
growing pains of self-discovery, for others it can be uplifting as well as
quite the liberating experience. So what
if your friends or family doesn’t approve!
Those that are truly concerned with your wellbeing as well as your
happiness will support you through almost any endeavor you so choose, as long
as it is safe, and for some selfish folks, as long as the choice does not, in
their opinion, “make them look bad.”
outside influences
How far does
“caring what others feel or think about you,” influence your important life
decisions? Are we as independent as we
perceive ourselves to be? I chose these
pictures I took as an example to show how beautiful as well as how well-off
someone or something can be that grows without outside help or influence. Think about the Elon Musks, the Steve Jobs
and all those success stories from folks that have not graduated college, or
chose to do something different than what was expected. Are their cases and how they began that
different than ours?
When we think
about influencers and visionaries who made a large impact on us, I think about
those that had the audacity to steal their ideas. I immediately think about Thomas Edison and
how he stole ideas from both Latimer (for the light bulb filament) as well as
how he stole ideas from Nicoli Tesla. I
try to be positive, I try to think, “well shit, some of these guys were born
with less than what I had, they had skin color on their side and the ones that
stole… they often were well off and came from families of prominence. Shoot, I even think about Benjamin Banneker
that designed Washington DC and the slaves the built it, how George Washington
Carver had clothes with missing buttons and that he died poor. But these are different times we live in,
right?
The black dude
that had the original recipe for Jack Daniels is finally getting his
recognition long after death. Are there
prices to pay for having the audacity or is the reward that much more sweet for
being that darn brave, or that damn stubborn?
No inventions, ways of living or creations by us are in any way beneath
greatness! The fact that we can use our
imagination to craft ideas, concepts and solutions, not just for self but for
all makes you not just the exception to the rule, but the one that courageously
broke the mold. In your eyes the idea
could have been an accident, opened up by a certain circumstance or, you had a
surprising stroke of awareness, epiphinizing, mind opening moment or simply
created the change with the intention of “it just had to be done!”
choice and change
How simple would
it be if we had all of the resources to bring about the change we imagined or
hoped for? Some are comfortable with the
decisions others make for them while there are others that demand to create the
change as well as to make all of the decisions themselves. As a child many of us had to be patient in
order to get what we wanted or needed, being told by adults as well as shown
“what it is we truly needed.” We learned the difference between want and
necessity as well as what was necessary in order to live life by their, our
parent’s standards. The same goes for
the societies as well as the communities we are a part of not apart from. I have said this and will say this again… We
have to truly decide how we desire for ourselves as well as our families to
live and what quality of existence we will give them and what to fight for.
Next time I think about influencers
and visionaries, let’s see if I can focus on more positive thoughts such as
Walt Disney (I’m just going to forget that he was a Nazi Sympathizer a “Nazi
Symp” for this post, alright y’all).
After much trial and error trying to build his own animation company in
the Midwest, he came to Hollywood, California with stars in his eyes, only 40
dollars in his pocket and one shirt in his suitcase. Let me think about the artists that rose to
stardom, the chef that although wasn’t trained in Paris, got to open his own
gourmet restaurant. I can even think
about the common story of the successful hip-hop artist, such as E40 and Too
Short, and like others, chose to hustle hard, start their own businesses and
weren’t deterred when selling albums and mixed-tapes out of the trunks of their
cars. Yes they rose to stardom and yes
there were hiccups and trials and errors along their journey to achieve whatever
goals they were determined to reach. As
I’m told and as I have witnessed, going against the grain, depending on your
support network can be very trying and is often a path many have to walk alone.
Although
walking the unbeaten path can sometimes be scary and even dangerous depending
on the crowd, I must admit as someone that has stroked against the waves and
tried to swim up a waterfall, that… It feels GREAT! It feels great when you find ways and
solutions others, for lack of vision could not see. You begin to feel like an explorer, an Indiana
Jones, Laura Croft or Steve Jobs once you do something spectacular and
different or invent something that no one else had the ingenuity to construct
on their own. My thoughts gravitate to the song by the Roots "Walk Alone." Let us raise a toast to
success, struggle, pleasure, pain and in finding a way with going against the
grain. Cheers!
