* Sunday, 2/1/09, Day 81, Judges 4:1-24, Do you feel God has asked you to do something atypical?

*warning* this is an extremely long and confusing post XD

I don't know how to answer that question....hmm if i am a weird or atypical then does that mean everyone else happens to be normal? If everyone is weird in their own way, then it is considered to be normal right?.....hmm these are the questions that haunt me......but anyways

In my U.S History class, we are learning about the post-world war II years. In that time period, suburbs were born and the society's identity for the typical man or woman were established. Everyone was pretty much similar to each other. They lived in houses that were clones to one another, they had the same style, they had the same interests.....yada yada. Women were supposed to stay home, do the housework, and watch the kids. Men were supposed to "bring home the bacon." During the war, women were allowed to work outside their homes because of the lack of men. Most of the men were fighting in the war. After the war, there were some women who didn't want to leave their workplace because they actually liked working. 25 % women that were interviewed said that they would rather reborn as a man than a woman. (I thought this statistic was interesing, so I just wanted to share it XD)

Although it seemed that most people who followed the 1950's stereotype, there were also some people that rebelled to this "sameness." Elvis was one example. His music and dance moves were influenced by the blacks. His music style was different from the general "white music."Even the book "the catcher in the rye" was also about a rebellious teen who felt that the world he was living in was filled with phonies. Rosa Parks was unlike the others, she took a stand where others would be too scared to do. Jackie Robinson is the first black male to play in major league baseball. All these people were different. Elvis could have gone with the music style that the older generation listened to. Instead he created music for a new generation. Rosa Parks and Jackie Robinson both could have done what most people with the same skin color would've done, step down and let the whites get their way again.

Because the culture is filled with so many copy cats, it gave birth to people who want to break the barrier. Imagine if the world was filled with people following their own beat or rhythm. Hmmm....it would be very hard to imagine, well to me. The concept of "everyone is different" still baffles me. God made everyone different. It is just so hard to comprehend at times. Just imagine how many different things you can have that no else in a million years would have. There are so many details; it is so mind blowing. Well, it just shows how wonderful, humongous, and creative His mind is. Would I want a world filled with everyone following their own trends, their own style......When i said everyone, I literally meant it. If i did live in that kind of world, then would there be people trying to rebel against the idea of expressing your own individuality? I think the concept of rebelling is to go against society. If society's latest trend was to be different then wouldn't there be people who would want to go against this just because they don't want to follow the crowd? Well, the point is the that the reason people go against being the imitation of someone else happens to contradicts the statement of "everyone is different." Plus, expressing your uniqueness makes you stand out in the crowd. Isn't that what most people want? To have something that separates them apart? Yet standing too far apart leads to the fear of misunderstanding one another and isolation.

okay the reason i stated those examples up there ^ is because I wanted to show how these people are known to this day because of their willingness to follow to their own beat. If they haven't, then blacks today would not be allowed to sit in front of the bus or we wouldn't have all the music genres that sprouted from Elvis's rock n' roll.
The definition to the word change is "to cause to be different." We always say that we want change. Well change is not going to chase after us, we have to chase after it. If we want growth or change, then that means we have to be different. We have to step out of the ordinary. I am not saying to be purposely different. By being yourself, you are being different. God didn't create clones. We are each given a mind of our own, talents of our own, abilities of our own.....and the list just keeps on going. Just like in the reading, God used Deborah to save the Israelites. It was a position that only Deborah was given. She was a woman living in a male dominated culture. She stood out and proved that women were capable of more than what meets the eye. yay XD
This also reminds me of a poem by Robert Frost called "the road not taken." It is a cool poem XD

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.