Do Ya 'Thang!

Fact: life sucks; it always has. The real world is a ruthless, unforgiving jungle, where only the strong survive. Let your guard down for even a nano-second and you'll get steam-rolled by the relentless mob that is always trying to one-up you. However, we seem to have gotten it into our heads that this is simply a new trend, an effect of global warming or some sorts. Yet another unpleasant development which we can conveniently blame on the 'West'.


But, if all these evolutionary loonies like Darwin (not the blogger) are to be believed, we all evolved over a few quinta-billion years, or something. Yes, once we were nothing but some single-celled protoplasmic form with a name that rhymed with ABBA, bored to tears, going nowhere. Then one day, one brave soul tired of being just one of the 'blobs', broke from the pack, said "SHAZAM!" and poof! - T-Rex was born.


Today's world is no different, though the competition has become markedly more fierce. Which is why it is important to develop a 'thing'.


They say that humour/empathy/porn is what sets us apart from the animals, but what sets us apart from each other is a lot harder to pin down. See, unfortunately God did a great job of creating us all uniquely the same, hence as our lives unravel it's upto us to differentiate ourselves from the pack. Go for any interview these days and it's not so much about your qualifications as it is about how different you are from the ten other applicants before you. The same goes for one's social life; if you're not bringing anything unique to the table, chances are you'll be sitting alone at that table for a long time.


The same can be said in all walks of life really, even on Kottu. The Lankan blogosphere is littered with obscure blogs that don't really have a theme or a style that is unique to their writing, yet amongst the crowd there are a few memorable blogs. There's RD who is the 'old guy blogger' with his particular brand of humour. There's Kalusudda, who is the blogosphere's 'commentator'. There's Gypsy, the resident 'story-teller'. There are Mommy bloggers, there are poets, there are artists, and then there's Jerry, who's just weird.


As is in kottu, as is in life. Well, not really, but here it does. Being a part of the crowd is never fashionable, be it at work or at your friend's barbecue. Whether we're aware of it or not, we develop certain traits, sayings, speech patterns and sometimes even entire persona's solely to be remembered. In fact, I'm sure if you look at your own friends circle you will find that it comprises of different 'types' of people; one is the joker, the other is the serious guy, the next is the flirt, the next is the junkie, and so on. It's like those picture tag things on Facebook, where you tag friends that fit the cartoon - yes, Facebook, the social experimentation networking site indeed.


I guess what it boils down to, is how far do we go to be memorable? There are some that carry it to extremes for the attention (like 'he-who-should-not-be-named-for-fear-of-legal-action'), and some people that just enjoy being stereotyped. In a world where the rat-race has well and truly become the sole reason to be alive, people that don't have an extra edge, an X-factor so to speak, never succeed.


So what's your 'thing'?