Reality on a Unicycle

Why is it that the majority of people, yours truly included, will conform with whatever norms society has set and live as if that is what life is supposed to be? That is really more rhetorical than anything. I imagine there are a myriad of psychological and sociological answers, including, it’s easy, provides public acceptance, blah, blah, blah. What if we didn’t buy the myth so readily?

I’ll start with something very common – work meetings.

What if everyone was really honest and said what was on their minds?

“I hate these things. I hate these people. I hate mornings. I should have had more coffee. Who’s bringing the coffee?”

“Brent’s tie is hideous, not unlike that report he sent out yesterday. What the hell was that?”

“We’d save a lot of time if we just make up the numbers. After we’re done crunching and managing, that’s all we’ve done anyway.”

“You just let me know when you are going to say something I should really be listening to.”

“She’s hot. I want to have sex with her, as long as she doesn’t talk. Talking would totally ruin it.”

OK, so maybe those are good reasons for conforming.

Seriously, though, how severely do we limit our experiences and the potential of our lives by buying into society’s norms, or even the laws of the physical universe? Can I break those? If I stop believing in gravity, will it stop believing in me? How much must we pass along to our children so that they can be a "success" in the "real world" and how much should we allow their own free spirits to soar? What if I wasn’t raised to believe that it’s desirable to get a good education, so I can get a “good” job, so I can buy a house, settle down, and raise a family? Whose fairy tale is that? What if I’d been raised to believe the most important thing in the world was being able to ride a unicycle everywhere I go, and that was the focus of my life? Happiness would depend on being able to navigate stairs while bouncing and balancing on one wheel. Hmmm...maybe not so very different from my life now, after all.