Don't Go Changin'...
Don't you love that Billy Joel song "Just the way you are"? I love the way it starts, "Don't go changing to try please me. You never let me down before." And who could forget the famous chorus, "I took the good times, I'll take the bad times, I'll take you just the way you are."
You might be wondering why the heck I'm wasting your time telling you about some silly Billy Joel song. Well, you may have noticed I'm always gushing about the great friends I have. Let me tell you about my friends, I've got some weird ones. Yes the bulk of them are what society would consider "normal", but I've got me some strange ones. There's the wanna-be gangster, the dreamer, the forever-cowboy, the free-spirit, the I-can't-stop-talking-long-enough-to-breath one, the one with the strange crick in his neck, the one with the perverted obsession, the OCD one who has more things that annoy her than things she thinks are fine with the world. Yes, I've got some crazy friends and somehow I find myself being a magnet to them.
Maybe it's because they fascinate me. I'm pretty boring and "normal". The idea of being "different" than the norm scares me. Maybe it is some fear of not being accepted or the thought of rejection. Both things are not in keeping with us "normal" people.
What I admire about my strange friends though is that they don't seem to have that need for acceptance, not the co-dependence most of us have. Of course they want to have friends, they want to advance in their careers, they want all the normal things the rest of us do, but not at the expense of their own human experience; of their path. That is pretty friggin admirable, especially since practically every human being that matters in the history of humankind was one of them. Imagine if Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had said "well, I better just go ahead and suck this whole being treated like a second-class citizen" thing up. Or Sister Theresa saying "ah, you know the poor people, I'm just one person, what can I do?"
These days, being "different" doesn't get you far. Most of us push the quacks away. Most of us try not to interact too much with the social misfit at the office, or the weird kid at school. In so doing, we miss the greatness of those who choose a life of individuality; to follow their own path. I think that in itself takes so much more courage than following the pack. So please, strange people of the world, nerds, geeks, eccentrics, know you have a friend in me. I hope they have a friend in you as well.
I think Billy Joel had it right, no one should have to change to try to please you. Like them just the way they are. :).
You might be wondering why the heck I'm wasting your time telling you about some silly Billy Joel song. Well, you may have noticed I'm always gushing about the great friends I have. Let me tell you about my friends, I've got some weird ones. Yes the bulk of them are what society would consider "normal", but I've got me some strange ones. There's the wanna-be gangster, the dreamer, the forever-cowboy, the free-spirit, the I-can't-stop-talking-long-enough-to-breath one, the one with the strange crick in his neck, the one with the perverted obsession, the OCD one who has more things that annoy her than things she thinks are fine with the world. Yes, I've got some crazy friends and somehow I find myself being a magnet to them.
Maybe it's because they fascinate me. I'm pretty boring and "normal". The idea of being "different" than the norm scares me. Maybe it is some fear of not being accepted or the thought of rejection. Both things are not in keeping with us "normal" people.
What I admire about my strange friends though is that they don't seem to have that need for acceptance, not the co-dependence most of us have. Of course they want to have friends, they want to advance in their careers, they want all the normal things the rest of us do, but not at the expense of their own human experience; of their path. That is pretty friggin admirable, especially since practically every human being that matters in the history of humankind was one of them. Imagine if Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had said "well, I better just go ahead and suck this whole being treated like a second-class citizen" thing up. Or Sister Theresa saying "ah, you know the poor people, I'm just one person, what can I do?"
These days, being "different" doesn't get you far. Most of us push the quacks away. Most of us try not to interact too much with the social misfit at the office, or the weird kid at school. In so doing, we miss the greatness of those who choose a life of individuality; to follow their own path. I think that in itself takes so much more courage than following the pack. So please, strange people of the world, nerds, geeks, eccentrics, know you have a friend in me. I hope they have a friend in you as well.
I think Billy Joel had it right, no one should have to change to try to please you. Like them just the way they are. :).
Gracias mi hermano
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