Fake Growth

The fodder for today's entry evolved from the music of Coffe'y Anderson.

In pop culture terms, his public persona and acoustic offerings are rife with contradictions. He's black, but more into country than hip-hop. He's talented, but not conceited. Interested in success, but seemingly not in abandoning the Christian beliefs in which many of his songs appear to be rooted.

I posted some of his videos on Facebook (my guilty pleasure), told the masses how great he was, and waited. Then I waited some more.

Few responses.

Understand me, please. This is not about a belief that if I like something, everyone else should like it too. I don't think or even want that. But I believe that people shy away from that which doesn't fit within their own narrow parameters of what they already know.

The people who chose not to listen, what did they gain? Nothing more than they already have. But if they'd listened, they may have thought a new thought, heard a new sound, or been led in a direction that enhanced their lives forever.

It's not just about the music, it's about the choice to stay tightly closed instead of open to new experiences.

Another example: I am a Christian. Have been all my life. I'm also a cradle Catholic, and in the case of a lot of my friends, the only Catholic they've ever met. And while we're all cool, and I've attended their churches often for service, no one takes me up on my offers to worship in my church home. Some of these same friends will only look for inspiration in music that sounds like what they always listen to, ministers who look and sound like the ones they always hear and only from church members who look like them.

Other friends are no different. Some make jokes about coming to my house, which is in a part of town that they see on the news connected with crime. Well, my street isn't like that, the police themselves have told me as much. But still, many of those friends seem unwilling to visit.

We all talk the talk of the evils of discrimination. But when given a chance to grow with as little effort as it takes to click on a video link for an artist we've never heard of, we take a pass. We all talk about how important it is to help our fellow man, and oh my goodness, how my friends have bemoaned the need for universal health care. But when the time comes to give for a cause or give their time at church or with a non-profit, we make excuses.

We all speak of the need to be own and willing to grow, but in reality, that seems to mean that we only want to grow within our own comfort zone.

Author Anais Nin spoke eloquently of how repeated rejection of growth is impossible:

...and the day came when the risk it took to remain tight inside the bud was more painful that the risk it took to blossom.

Make it easy on yourself. Grow.