As promised: Unique Uniformity*

*Barry has a way with alliterations and when I was discussing with him my tentative next blog topic, he neatly coined it "Unique Uniformity." So, I'm crediting him with the fancy title. :)

"Ooh look Mom! A Bratz doll just like all my friends have. Please can I have it? Pleeease?"
"Hey, that sweater looks great; it's so you. Where'd you get it?" "Yeah, I wanted something unique. I got it at AE on sale for only $45!"


(CBS) Every woman who's ever attended a formal party has had the same concern: What if someone else shows up in the same dress?
As CBS News correspondent Thalia Assuras reports, that's exactly what happened to first lady Laura Bush at Sunday's Kennedy Center Honors, always one of Washington's biggest nights for stars, and glamorous fashion.
With guests in the spotlight at the exclusive White House receptions that go with the ceremony, the designer gowns are always scrutinized.
And on Sunday, four women at the reception wore the exact same $8,500 Oscar de la Renta dress, Mrs. Bush among them.

As you can probably tell by now, the concept of everybody wanting to be different in the same way, or the same in different ways is what I would like to focus on this time. Why is it, that when presented with a two alternatives, one of which is popular and sort of generic but still perfectly usable, and another which is not very utilitarian but it's different (and probably more expensive), we frequently choose the latter? Why is it that society is always pursuing fashion but never quite getting there; that whatever is hot today is not tomorrow?

To climb the mountain via a different route, explain this to me. Why is there an almost infinite variety of automobiles, but we're satisfied with only four or five different kinds of web browsers? They all do basically the same thing, so why don't we just pick the best four or five options and get rid of all the rest? Think of the money that would be saved!

One very obvious difference between web browsers and cars is that other people can see what kind of car you're driving. Is that it? Does our desire to be different stem from our desire to be noticed and approved of by others? I know most people say that they chose their specific 'whatever' because they like 'it', but how much of our approval of 'it' is shaped by society's approval?

Now let me attempt to weave this thread in with my original idea. The toys and clothes and cars that are in style are fashionable because it's what everybody else likes, or if you're lucky, what everybody else is just starting to like. But I think God's original intent was that each person showcase their unique personality just for Him, without regard to what others thought. If (1) God is the ultimate Personality and the original Creator and (2) humans were created in His image, then we are expressly creative and singularly individual beings.



Satan realized that if humans went about life without regard for anyone's approval, as we looked at all the beautiful expressions of individual personalities, we would see the imprint of the Divine shining through. So of course he had to invent a substitute. "We can't have you looking to God for approval!" he sneers. "Here, I give you human gods. Wear what they wear, buy what they buy, worry about what they think." And so as we started looking downward and inward instead of upward, we lost our sense of what was truly fashionable and unique.

Excelsior