Uniqueness
Divine Idea by Fabian Kruse
Imitation is Suicide. Insist on yourself; never imitate. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Write down in which areas of your life you have to overcome these suicidal tendencies of imitation, and how you can transform them into a newborn you – one that doesn’t hide its uniqueness, but thrives on it. There is a “divine idea which each of us represents” – which is yours?
(Author: Fabian Kruse)
Hmmm. Suicidal tendencies of imitation sounds really severe. It’s not like I’m a follower of Bob Jones or David Koresh or an actual lemming. This is another prompt where I’m not sure exactly what’s a proper response so I’m just going to ramble on and hope I can bring my response to a tidy conclusion that somewhat relates to the question.
I am a bit of a chameleon in that I can easily hang with a wide variety of crowds. Book nerds, comic book nerds, techies, sports nuts, wine and food enthusiasts, social media mavens, Parrot Heads, country music fans, poker players, board gamers, oldsters, toddlers, college kids...put me in a crowd of any of those and I will adapt and soon belong. I think that’s due to being outgoing and having a lot of diverse interests. Just don’t ask me to actually go rock climbing but I bet I could have a relevant discussion with those nuts. (Seriously, hanging by your fingertips off of incredibly high cliffs? You have to be crazy.)
Whether you call that imitation or adaptation, it’s all good. Until I get with the “wrong” crowd then it’s not good at all. Wrong as in a bad influence on my psyche and my health.
I can easily become negative if I’m with a negative person. When I’m out with a bunch of heavy drinkers, well, it’s not like I need a lot of encouragement anyway but I’ll drink heavily. Spending time with people who are pissed off at other people? I’m getting better but I can still get my dander up even if I wasn’t involved in the original interaction.
So, yes, I imitate those around me. I think we all do to a certain degree unless we’re pathologically damaged. What make us unique is the combination of personality facets - no two people share the same combination. There may be someone out there that has just as much in common as I do with the groups I listed above but they may not like NASCAR or they may be introverted or religious or athletic or depressed or any of a multitude of qualities/inclinations that I don’t share.
In short, humans are living snowflakes and we’re all divinely unique.
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