Gummy Sweet Life

So no doubt we have all heard the phrase '[insert fruit here] flavoured? Yeah right! The closest this [sweet/juice/etc] has been to a [insert fruit here] is that at most it was shown a picture of a [insert fruit here] at some point in its life'

It struck me yesterday, that this was actually a very sad and cruel accusation. Picture a gummy sweet. For the whole of its life it has been told it is strawberry flavoured. From the very beginning it has been told it must emulate a strawberry. It was once shown a picture of a strawberry, and was informed this was what it must live up to. And it has tried. It is in the same shape, it is the right colour, even if the green bit doesn't quite match the bit shaped like leaves. It even manages to taste of strawberries. But it knows, and cannot escape the fact, that it is not a strawberry. It can, in fact, never be a strawberry, because it was not born to be one. But our poor little gummy friend must continue this pretense, knowing it is fooling neither itself, nor its eventual consumer.

When you try your best, but you don't succeed...

And then, oh indignities of indignities. The person who has chosen it, the person it has lived its whole short life trying to eventually be perfect for, mocks its pain. This person is you, is me, is the whole human race, who insist on poking fun at the futile, yet fervent efforts of the artificially flavoured ones amongst us.

Yes, this is a long and slightly weird metaphor for the life of far too many people today. We have seen pictures, and heard stories of people who have made it big. People who we are told are the prettiest, the cleverest, the most talented. We can never match up, we think. This is where the metaphor falls down a little. You see, we are not gummy sweets. We are not a pale parody of something beautiful. We are all beautiful, and all have something beautiful inside us to contribute to the world. Instead of being gummy sweets trying to pretend to be strawberries, we are like raspberries, trying to be strawberries. Yes, it is impossible, but raspberries are also something wonderful and tasty.

Everyone has a song inside them. Everyone has a treasure which is uniquely theirs. If you cannot show it to the world, by the lack of one treasure, we are all made poorer. So don't be afraid, live your life beautifully, and don't try to imitate anyone else - you are amazing, just as you are.

Random inspirational road picture