“Creativity can solve almost any problem. The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything.”
–George Lois
There’s something about grey paint on houses. There’s something about its homogeneous, boring, unexciting ability to cover up flaws. All the house flippers are using it, inside and out. It has become the sign of “normal life” and “generic America.” It sells houses. Not only houses, but ads for furniture and interior décor items are also done up in fifty shades of grey. Do we really want all that grey? Apparently, some do.
We also see grey in people’s personalities. People don’t want to express individual tastes b/c it might draw attention to themselves. People are striving to “fit in” anywhere you go. Elders lift their noses in contempt when something new comes along. Children get bullied for being ‘different.’ Being grey–sameness–is how we cope with those realities. A Japanese proverb says the nail that sticks up shall be hammered down. And this leads to grey sameness.
Long ago when I was trying to work a ‘normal’ job, I struggled because I could not fit in. Growing up in an unconventional household, shorter than average and with a weird name, I did not understand the desire or the drive for sameness. To me, it was unproductive. Trying to stay within the confines of rules seemed, well…impossible. I could not change what was different about me to become the same as everyone else, so it seemed stupid to try.
I learned to embrace the differences, to eschew that grey sameness. I became a problem solver, a situation handler, a outside-the-box thinker. I discovered that the creative act, the ability to apply new information to existing structures, was the most beneficial thing I could do for my present environment.
There is nothing inherently better about sameness, fitting in, and grey. Its an emotional feeling we get and nothing more. It used to be important that humans felt a sense of belonging. In our evolutionary history, a human without a tribe was a human destroyed. This is no longer the case. Today, independence is not only possible, it is celebrated. We are expected to be able to stand on our own without help. Without, of course, looking weird while we’re doing it, because then we wouldn’t ‘fit in.’ (Hang out with that irony for just a second…).
We want people to like us…but not “need” us. We want people to see what makes us individuals, but yet we want a group of friends who agree with us for the most part. We want our own space in the midst of the group.
Being averse to changes, differences, and weirdness does not necessarily keep us safely in the group, though. It stops us from speaking our individual minds. Social cues to stay in line might let us avoid conflict, but if we worry about our belonging to a tribe, we might hold back words if they could be met with differing opinions. We might overlook solutions that will be met with any sort of pushback.
However, in our current climate, now is not the time to be ‘other’ averse. Now is not the time for grey. Go ahead and butt heads with someone if you stand out. Go ahead and be that different, weird, interesting person with the new information to add to the existing structure. You don’t have to be suitable for everyone who shows up; you just have to be you. Stop hiding your colors. Speak up and stand out. We can’t afford for you to not do that anymore. This is where our solutions lie.
We have problems to solve, and the only way to solve a problem is with the creative act. Putting novel information into the soon-to-be obsolete situations we are struggling with, be it climate change, economic exchange, or social inequality, is the only way this planet will be livable for our future generations. How can we be problem solvers if we can’t get creative? Painting everything grey just hides the problems.