Let me take you back to the Victorian time in England, a time when the industry was just waking up in force and the world was about to enter a big change. For some the items in the picture may be museum pieces, for others these items were their every day objects. For us it is just a piece of history.
When we talk about our lives and our perception of the world a similar thing happens. For some the stuff you are talking about is history, for some is their lived experience and for others it is just some story some person is saying.
Today I had two interesting encounters, one with some person who decided to make a comment about my spelling and the other a family member. The first comment was about the spelling of the word jewellery – in British English is spelled with two ll’s in the American version it is spelled with a single l, and yet the person making a comment insisted I needed a spelling dictionary to know my grammar. Let’s not forget that perhaps they could have commented about the work involved in producing an item and the intricacies of a piece of woven wire art, and yet they decided that I was losing credibility for choosing to use a British spelling. Clearly their world is lost in the mire of being right, rather than observing the potential of the human behind the words.
My second encounter with the family member was over a the fact that I was not sharing the same point of view with them. I was told that should I have stayed behind with the family in the same place they continue to be I would not be differing in views. To some degree they are correct had I stayed in the same place as they were perhaps I would have the same point of view, and yet this family member could not fathom that people can have differing points of view and yet still be able to hold a conversation.
I guess in both scenarios the people I engaged with either personally or through the power of the written word, they felt they needed to correct my point of view, they needed to put me right, they needed to weigh in on my opinions.
It is interesting that in a world of almost 8 billion people we are still expected to conform. It is interesting how we are still in the wrong if we hold true to our own beliefs. It is interesting that if you do not share the thoughts that are museum worthy we somehow need to get with the program.
So, how often are you told you are in the wrong and you have to get with the program?
How many times have you had to deal with museum worthy ideas?
How often are surrounded by ideas that are similar to the objects in the image?
Do they hold weight in your world?
Are you still working hard at being accepted?
Are you still compromising your own thoughts just to be liked?
Are you ready to become a different version of yourself?
Have you started the upgrade yet?
Time to take out your diary and take some notes when answering the questions.
