IF YOU AIN'T THE LEAD DOG THE SCENERY NEVER CHANGES

Humans are fundamentally social beings; we are borne into families, and spend our childhood being moulded by others. We learn by example and mimicry, we eat what others prepare for us; we dress and behave as dictated by our culture.

Custom and practice become our guides; they compel us to become a certain kind of adult, we are pre- programmed if you like, to follow the herd and walk the well-trodden path. Once we step off this path we become outsiders, different and worryingly strange. We see life differently to others, principles long instilled in us lose their value, black and white merge into grey.

This difference can come at a price, even if you run alongside the herd, you will run in a new unrecognised way and at an inconvenient pace that singles you out.  If you are out of step you can be thought of as out of mind, be considered irresponsible, Churchill wrote “It is better to be irresponsible and right than to be responsible and wrong” 

In other words being different is neither right nor wrong it is just different, and though it is safer and more comfortable to follow the herd, that way you will end up in the same place as everyone else. You will be safe, but the journey will not have been exciting, it won’t have opened up new possibilities and you won’t have explored new places. A predictable life offers no breath taking memories and leaves  no captivating stories to tell.

The title is a quote from Lewis Grizzard.