Ideas Love Nature

People are funny creatures. We continually try and convince ourselves that we are original and unique, and that nobody else is quite like us.

But we've all heard the old motif. "If everybody's special, then nobody is."

I don't really believe either of those. Not everybody is perfectly unique, there aren't near enough traits for every single person to have their own. But at the same time, the human race is far from homogeneous.

Really, it's just this:

Ideas are recycled.

Every great movie, book, person, action, anything has probably been done before in some way, shape or form.

But that doesn't make it any less unique. It just means that it's not entirely original.

People tend to get so hung up on convincing themselves that what they are doing comes from their own mind, not from an outside influence. I know that I do. But the truth is that everything has a motivation, and motivations are all recycled.

There is a fine line between motivation and pure duplication, however. If something is done merely because somebody else did it, there's nothing slightly original about it. If it's done in your own way but the action was inspired by somebody else's, that's simple motivation, and has been altered enough to become unique in its own right.

We heard from a guest speaker in my lit class the other day. He worked with famous poets, and is a poet himself. And when he first introduced himself to us, he started with an idea that I found very interesting.

He told us that people were all connected through lineage. If a person shares the same passions as you do, they are from your lineage. Not all people from the same lineage are really that similar though, as you well may know.

I have often met people through similar interests, thinking that because of our share passion we will immediately get along.

Most of those people end up being douches.

Which brings me to the second point that Randy made.

Of the people who share your lineage, there are only some who are also in your tribe.

That tribe extends all the way around the world.

So when you find somebody that seems so similar to you it's as if the gods just made a carbon copy, it may be tempting to think of your ideas as no longer original.

Because they're not.

They're recycled from the same sources that are drawn upon by all of the rest of the people who share your lineage, and utilized by the people in your tribe.

The ideas are still your own.

They may be recycled, or motivated by a common influence, but no matter how many people you may find from your same tribe, ideas are personal, and their similarities should be reveled in, never run from.

And although this reasoning may have been entirely circular and in the end make sense to nobody but myself, I think that it's fairly sound advice.

Love your ideas.

They have also stemmed from other brains. They are motivated by the world around you, no matter how hard you try to convince yourself that they came from your soul and not the people you associate yourself with.

But they are yours, and should be utilized as such.