So You Think You’re Unique
There’s a certain irony in the fact that so many teachers force their students to memorize “The Road Not Taken,” turning them into little drones, when the popular message is about individuality and taking a different path than the norm. I wonder what percentage of students take that message to heart, refusing to recite the poem as written, instead altering it to express their unique travels. And would their teachers praise them for “getting it” or punish them for disobedience?
On the other hand, some might argue that the poem is really about uncertainty and self-deception, about having no regrets, that even though the two roads look exactly the same, with the same amount of wear, I will tell myself when I am older that I took the right road, maybe even dress it up a little in my memory by saying it was less traveled, when I don’t really know that at all.
A poet friend once told me that being an individual is not about going against the norm, but choosing those things to which we will conform and those to which we won’t. Individuality is in all of those millions of decisions we make every day. I choose to wear clothes, for instance. A nudist might call me a conformist, but if I chose to be a nudist, wouldn’t I be conforming to other nudists? There is no freedom from conformity, it’s just differing degrees and individual choices. And if you choose to be the opposite of something, you are still bound to it.
There’s irony again, right? We’re all conformists and yet unique. Regardless, I have no regrets. And I’m not lying to myself in saying it. At least I don’t think so.