Startled? Shocked? Horrified? All of the above. How could this have happened? Oh, I could give you a perfectly reasonable explanation for why I’m wearing slacks today – not pants or trousers, but honest to goodness slacks. And I swear I’m only surfing celebrity gossip to calm my beta-brain into a blissful alpha interim before boosting back up to finish my intellectual tome-of-the-moment (and it’s a really thick one too). But on the surface, I have completely submitted to the stereotype: the hair, a bun; my shoes, practical; my cardigan (yes, cardigan), thigh grazing and demure. I’m even drinking from our office kitchen’s “make every day a Friday!” mug. The horror.
Now, before I confess what I’m about to, I’m trusting you to understand something, that this moment does not define me. Just as I’ll trust that wherever you might find yourself today – in whatever footwear – that you, at least, have hope that someday you will find your own expression of whatever marvelous uniqueness your soul is coded to contain. That said…
My full surrender to the stereotype came as I reached into my desk drawer and dug out a cherry filled chocolate from my secret stash… and then another. Yes, dear readers, I’m typing this with still-sticky fingers. I’m living the very paradigm I’ve spent a lifetime trying desperately to escape. And I ask myself… What effect does environment really have, on our identities, our actions, our morale? Maybe we are not so independent of circumstance? Maybe my day job is more than a time ticker? Maybe you and I are risking more of ourselves than we realize? So let’s do something radical this weekend. You and me. Pinky swear…
Blank Canvas Living 
brilliant, I laughed, I cried….how indeed? Given that my work involves attending to our environment – ie. how we are performed by our environment – your article touched a nerve (of recognition) – and then as I look around my cluttered-filled office, stepping over a myriad of overdue library books, two decade old classroom notes, last year’s student essays, marked but never returned…I think…what would I be writing if I was somewhere else, surrounded by blue skies, a horizon beyond the office tower next door….? Keep on writing, Cymbria, you are playing a beautiful chord in the cacophony of our lives….lynn
Awesome! Yeah, I think our surroundings and our environment play a huge factor on our identities, actions, and morals. That raises the whole “nature vs nurture” question about how much of each defines who we are and what we do. I think our surroundings shape us more than our genome does, but only slightly. Cool post. Cheers.
Thank you Lynn and Jan! We live in such a “be yourself” world, but nobody seems to be able to define what that really means. Just look at all those ‘personal style’ blogs. Ever notice how the supposed ‘individualists’ can still be grouped into definite categories – the hat wearing multi-coloured people… the wide pant flat shoe people… May as well own up to our innate influenceability (I prefer the kinder, gentler term – adaptability) and try to set ourselves up in environments that will be most ‘nurturing’ to our coded ‘natures’. Have a great weekend!
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