#resound11 Prompt 15: Discovery
We learn new things every day. Processes change at work. We meet new people. We cook new recipes. We are constantly learning and growing.But sometimes we learn something that qualifies as a discovery. A piece of new information – a feeling, a song, a place, an event, a book, a random fact – can sometimes change our view on the world and our place in it. Discovery can bring on positive change, but sometimes discovery is hard. Sometimes it causes conflict. But after a discovery, something about you just isn’t quite the same.What discovery did you make in 2011? What kind of impact did it have on how you view the world today?
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Layers
“Everybody who comes here thinks they got the place figured out, but you can never get this place figured out,” … “This place is like ‘The Wizard of Oz.’ ” – Ice Cube on Los Angeles, Ice Cube Is In the House!
What I love most about that NYT article on Ice Cube Celebrating the Eameses is how it manages to break through barriers: we learn about Ice Cube being a former architectural student and about Los Angeles through his eyes as a native. Both adding depth to him and our hometown and probably creating an element of surprise to anyone who thought they had both Ice Cube and L.A. all figured out.
One of the things that irritate me the most (perhaps because I do this, too) is feeling boxed in to a certain type; when folks think they have me all figured out. I think I am generous & kind & often mild-mannered and I think sometimes this translates to pushover, naive, weak, gullible, Polly Anna, etc etc. Not to mention other labels that relate to my race, age, appearance and background. I don’t hear these labels said to my face, but they hurt when I know the person saying them to me has no clue what I’m about at all.
2011 has felt like my year of peeling back those layers. Slowly allowing others to see the many sides of me — all angles, all shades of dark and light. Creating more substance to my story and to my character. I often surprise myself at times too when I discover that – hey! I can do that or WOW! I really hate that actually. I’m never doing THAT again… y’know? Or I’ll say something completely unexpected like “Bleep bleep bleep that, mother-bleeper!!! BLEEP BLEEP! !@$%!!”. Y’know? Surprise!? Not really. I was always like that, I just never showed you.
We constantly move and change and grow and we can never really stop discovering new things about ourselves everyday. It’s fun once you figure out the dynamics of this ride.
So, the next time you find yourself judging another person – stop and ask yourself about their story. You may not know it at that moment, but it helps to know that they have one. We all do.
Peel back your layers, baby.
[this is good.]