Against The Flow of Traffic (Pt-1)

“The person who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. The person who walks alone is likely to find himself in places no one has ever seen before.”― Albert Einstein

One afternoon, on my way down to Dana Point from Hollywood, driving with the flow of traffic at around 80mph, 4 lanes across and no end to the line of cars before or behind me,  I had this thought…

"What would it be like to drive at the same speed in the opposite direction?" 

And so for a few seconds I pictured this hair raising adventure and, knowing this section of the freeway like 'the back of my hand' I imagined my self dodging cars to and fro, causing much blaring of horns and verbal abuse and hopefully, finding a way through unscathed.

My good friend and philosopher Andre Begért once said:

"To love a community you must betray it".

Now Andre is Swiss and English is not his first language and so, the first time I heard him utter this, I did wonder:

'Was there something lost in translation?'

The word traitor initially brought to mind the Benedick Arnold or Judas types. People that sell out their friends for money or power. And so we discussed his statement and what he meant by it. Eventually I understood what he was trying to say and, it rang true, just like my notion of driving in the opposite direction to the traffic on the freeway.

In Andre’s mind, to love a community, we must be willing to go against the flow of common thought or, what is considered to be the status quo.

Are you willing to stand in the way… or to confront… or be an instigator of change?

What about rocking against the status quo of your local culture?

What would your own world look like…

If, now and then, you got out of the flow of the popular opinion, and turned around and faced it head on?

It’s hard to be creative if all we are doing is the same as everyone else.