Umm, beauty...having a hard time with this tonight.
Oh--today I saw a woman who was clearly from Africa coming back from the grocery store with two bags of food in her hands...and a 24-bottle case of Dasani water on her head. She was turning around, she was getting keys out--and the bottles never wavered. Unbelievable.
Later at work I walked by a woman's office...and she was working on her laptop while she was walking on a treadmill. In a skirt and tennis shoes. Door wide open. And why shouldn't it be?
How beautiful to see traditions and quirks being lived out in the middle of "normal" life. Of course. Because traditions and quirks are what are normal for us. Maybe not to everyone else, but they are identity-building for us.
Unfortunately, I have always tried to "fit in" and hide anything that sets me apart from what I consider to be mainstream. But I think it's time to free my mind and live in the oddities and customs that make me who I am.
Isn't it fun, after all, to begin to get to know someone well enough to discover those things that make you go "huh"?! Like, "Wow, I never realized you could carry water bottles on your head", or "So, you like to dance in your living room in front of a mirror?"
How about those things that you have always done, never questioned, and could never let go of? The things that never enter your consciousness until you move to a new place where "those things" are done differently? Take pride in them and rediscover their beauty. Don't hide them.
And let's look at the flip side: when you see someone doing something that is clearly not in the realm of "normal" for you, look on in a spirit of admiration and non-judgment. After all, the things you take for granted as "normal" are probably pretty quirky to someone, somewhere.
Very well said. How many times we stop and stare at actions of someone doing JUST that - something our of our own realm. I love that we do have our freedoms!
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