Plastic vs. Authentic

Spring flowers. Very real.

 Over at The Simple Dollar, Trent wrote something that I wanted to share:

My sister-in-law is a florist. She can take a few hands full of ditch weeds and dandelions and make them look amazing in about five seconds.


On the flip side of that coin, many department stores sell centerpieces stuffed with plastic flowers consisting of perfectly-arranged imitations of beautiful blossoms.


Sit them side by side and the arrangement of ditch weeds and dandelions looks far more impressive.

The same is true with people. I find a person whose life is full of genuine dandelions and ditch weeds to be far more compelling than the person whose life is full of plastic roses, and I’m far from alone in that conclusion.

There are lots of people who say "be yourself" but then offer a laundry list of how to be more like them, which frustrates me to no end. This really is saying to just be yourself.

There's room in the world for everyone to march to their own beat without either stepping on other people's toes or making themselves into imitations of other people. Yeah, I have my issues, but in the end, I'm glad to be me.