When I was young, I asked a lot of questions, most of them starting with the word “why?” Why do I have to clean my room as long as I keep my door closed? Why do I have to spell words the “right” way as long as anyone reading it understands what I am communicating? Why, oh why, is the sky blue? These were not rhetorical questions. I wasn’t just putting them out into the world -- I wanted answers. And if the answer didn’t make sense, or I didn’t understand, I asked a different question. Usually starting with “but why?”
I drove my mother crazy.
I haven’t stopped. Why do I need to follow a particular plan for my life? Why can’t I carve my own path? Why can’t I build something? Why do I have to wear a suit every day, and who thought pantyhose were a good idea? (A guy named Allen Gant, apparently.)
Just because other people say it’s so doesn’t mean it is necessarily “right” in some abstract way. And it certainly doesn’t mean it is necessarily right for you.
Sometimes you need to avoid the trap of following the crowd just because “that is how it is done.” Sometimes you need to ask why, and if the answer doesn’t work for you, then sometimes you need to zig when others zag.
Now listen, we know that’s not always easy. It is human nature to be influenced by those around us. It is human nature to want to fit in and be accepted. It is human nature to want what others have, do what they do and fall in line with the crowd.
But sometimes, we need to step outside of that line. We must choose our own destination, set our own unique priorities and chart our own path. As Robert Frost teaches in his timeless poem “The Road Not Taken”:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
This month at 99 Walks we're going to remember that it is okay to break away from the herd and take the road that is uniquely ours.
This month, we are going to Zig When Others Zag.
Joyce
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