Swimming outside the box

My husband sent us this quotation this morning:   "Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity." -- Christopher Morley 

It's a perfect quote for our family -- we all tend to march to a different drum, and we have this pat phrase: You Can't Put Walkers in a Box.  Just when you think we're classifiable, we break out of the mold: there's a stubborn complexity that comes down from both sides of the family and has resulted in some intriguing trait combinations.  

Our younger daughter's immediate response to this quotation was to send us to today's Google homepage, which features a delightful homage to Martha Graham, one of Bennington College's most famous graduates.

Graham is, of course, a perfect example of the courage exemplified in this quotation; she completely revolutionized modern dance with her breathtaking originality.  And, in fact, she set a standard for that that Bennington students still struggle to emulate -- which is part of why my daughter chose to go there: she's used to being around folks who are a little out of the norm.  

But as John Donne tells us, no man is an island: however individual or original we are, we still need to operate in community.  Jack Kornfield, in The Wise Heart, tells us that the sixth principle of Buddhist psychology is this:  Our life has universal and personal nature.  Both dimensions must be respected if we are to be happy and free.  And even the book I'm reading for school right now talks about the importance of paying attention to both corporate and individual needs in a business environment; that, in fact, the tension between the two provides opportunity for creativity and growth.

So yes: we humans are social animals, and will always be walking a line between what I want or need and what's best for me and what my community/business/neighborhood/family wants or needs, and what is best for the group.  And I think we do that by staying open, by exploring new ways of being, both as individuals and communities, by making a choice occasionally step out of the box, or swim against the current. 

So let me ask you this: what's got you feeling boxed in today?  What could you be doing differently?  Is something silly beckoning you?  Today's quotation in The Promise of a New Day is this: "The distance doesn't matter; only the first step is difficult."   I think what keeps us in the box is not the rest of the world but our own attitudes and resignation -- it's a sort of Buddhist concept: we are the architects of our own boxes, our own suffering, our own behavior patterns.  And a single step can sometimes take us -- either as individuals or as a community -- on a completely different journey.

So if that's true, what might you do -- or think, or read -- differently today?