Inside The Box

Can you be contrarian about being contrarian? Does that somehow cancel everything out? Is it like multiplying two negative numbers and ending up with a positive number?

For years our culture has embraced - perhaps revered is a better choice - those whose thinking went against conventional wisdom. We held in high esteem one who zigged while the rest of us were still practicing our zag. The popular vernacular for this contrarian even segregated them from the masses, placing them outside the normal boundaries that we-who-plod-obediently have confined ourselves within.

Yes, they think OUTSIDE THE BOX.

But wait a minute. Elevate the status of anything, especially the perceived reverence of the uber-cool contrarian, and you immediately invite everyone into the pool. From far and wide there is a rush to crowd into that VIP box, where one and all are glorified for coloring outside the lines, for bucking the trend, for - yes, let's say it again - thinking OUTSIDE THE BOX.

Yet we've shot ourselves in the foot. Our society has made thinking OUTSIDE THE BOX so hip, so honored, and so rewarded - justly or not - that we have a stampede of young souls who want to be OUTSIDE THE BOX merely because they're told it makes them special.

The problem, you ask? The problem is that we are desperately hurting for folks who have mastered thinking INSIDE the box.

Time out, lest you think I'm anti-creativity or anti-spontaneity. No, quite the contrary. I'm an author, a speaker, and a 30-plus year host in entertainment radio. Creativity is my life blood.

But I'm proud to say that I aced the test needed to open the box and step out. I became fluent in all of the skills that society needs - or should need - before I played outside.

Like what? Well, like literacy, grammar, math skills, common courtesy, communication skills... C'mon, I know the difference between 'œlose'쳌 and 'œloose,'쳌 and I'm convinced that 80 percent of people confuse them daily.

We've endowed thinking OUTSIDE THE BOX with such a god-like status that we have generations of young people who feel as if they are a nobody if they're not focused on being exceptionally different in all ways, at all times.

Why bother to spell correctly? Don't you realize my spelling is OUTSIDE THE BOX? Sorry, I'm not able to make correct change for your dollar, but I'm way too OUTSIDE THE BOX for that.

Call me a cultural speed bump, but I feel that we need to earn the right to step out of the box. Imagine if you will a society where nobody mastered anything considered INSIDE the box. What if we were all contrarian?

Do you see the inherent paradox there? Or am I alone on this island?

A world where everyone is OUTSIDE THE BOX is chaos. Oh, what I wouldn't give for a solid mass of folks who were superb at all of those icky tasks that are necessary within the box.

We can't be a society of 100 percent dreamers. Sorry, I know I sound so...so...dour. But really, when I throw the switch I want the lights to work, don't you?

Besides, most of our country's greatest creations came from minds that had mad skills INSIDE the box before they emigrated to the outer limits. They could add and spell and articulate their thoughts. They didn't fall out of their crib with some expectation of OUTSIDE THE BOX entitlement. They earned their inner-box stripes, so to speak.

Of course, it's difficult to put the genie back in the bottle, but a little love for those who are masters of INSIDE THE BOX abilities could be a good start. A little appreciation for any display of inside aptitude would be nice for a change.

Quite frankly, there are so many people trumpeting their OUTSIDE THE BOX thinking that it has become boring. Yes, I get it, you're soooo interesting. Just like everyone else.

In an age where a contrarian becomes lost in a sea of contrarians, where we push every child out of the box before they even understand the insides of it, I'd like to nominate the INSIDE THE BOX champions as our new heroes. We need them.

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If you liked this article, you should also read:

Inspiring Your Students... and Yourself

The Reward of the Challenge (Part I)

The Reward of the Challenge (Part II)

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