Our gene distribution and mutation have a lot in common (survival instinct, reproduction, empathy etc…). But from there, each of us is different and unique: some poets, others warriors or both.
Haruki Murakami is both a writer and a runner (100 km race). Richard Blanco, who will recite at Obama’s Inauguration, is both an engineer and a poet.
Leonardo Da Vinci was multi-talented. I am threading in Malcolm Gladwell’s waters here. What makes a person genius? How did they find that out? Early or late in life (Raymond Carver took writing courses late in life).
What if we are “outliers”, but go about life undiscovered, undecoded?
What line do we have to cross to “find ourselves”?
10,000 hours of doing the same thing? Solving problems at the same level they occurred has never worked. Just think of failed relationships (rooted in dysfunctional families, then manifest itself later in life).
A new generation of young Americans are defining themselves with acronyms (NYT latest on Annette Bening and Warren Beatty kids).
Being first-wave immigrant, I serve as a bridge, for my American-born daughters to cross-over.
They are on Facebook and Twitter. They wear jeans and use I-phones.
They text (while I twist, well, not that old. My brother did) often times with abbreviation and speak a language of their peers.
While I enjoyed lengthy 20-minute long CCR’s O Suzie Q and Cream’s Sunshine of Your Love, they watch viral YouTube’s clips.
I belong to a generation that enjoyed getting blasted at, while theirs is an uploading one (one-to-many vs many-to-many communication).
They can “read” someone instinctively (gene mutation?), decoding people rather quickly. I meanwhile grew up learning how to entertain guests, give them benefits of the doubt (not three-strikes-you-are-out).
They speak in short bursts and shorthands. My prof’s however spent a lot of time setting up a theme before getting to the heart of their lectures.
We learn to comprehend and communicate bound by technology of any given time (a tweet lasts only 140 characters, with some buffering).
I remember sending post cards home when doing relief work overseas.
Before I get to what I wanted to say, I ran out of room. Overseas long distance phone calls were quite prohibitive. Even now, to call back to the US from Timbuktu is quite daunting.
Life is a crash course in understanding ourselves and our surroundings.
It might end abruptly, and there are no final exams. We will have to rely on others to “see” for us (director’s cut or uncut, novelist, poet and priest).
Born with this inability to see ourselves with our own eyes (only reflection in the mirror), we are humble and eager to discover more, to surprise ourselves at times: we have more courage, flexibility and nobility than we know. Only when we are in good company, in danger that a better version of ourselves emerge.
Outliers know this early in life. Others just focus on one or two things they are passionate about. Runner-writer, engineer-poet. What if you are better in the kitchen than in the boardroom? We call them chefs and not chiefs. And it’s OK too, given today’s technology e.g. YouTube. I hope your secret sauce go viral. Just make sure you speak in short bursts when targeting younger audience.
Thang Nguyen 555 