Do You Color Inside the Lines?

In school, I was always taught to color within the lines.  Seems logical.  After all, when we color within the lines, we usually make a pretty picture. The colors may not match perfectly, but no one can say we're not neat.  And at least that's something.  As I've aged (yes, gracefully - thank you), I've begun to question the logic of coloring within the lines.  Not because I don't like pretty pictures, but because I wonder (often) whose lines I'm really coloring in and why I should be concerned with their lines.  Maybe you wonder that as well?

Would the world be a better place without lines?  OK, I'll admit, that's a silly question.  We, of course, need lines to define property boundaries, mark the right and left sides of the roadway, punish folks who violate or ignore the law (unless of course the glove doesn't fit) and assemble in an orderly fashion when WalMart is selling DVD players for $19.99 (after $5 mail- in rebate), among other things.  We need lines to get along with each other in a peaceful and productive manner, lest we invite that nasty little annoyance called anarchy.

Besides these societal-appropriate lines, however, I believe the rest are seriously overrated, especially those that limit (or hope to) your ability to let your creativity make a difference in the world.  We start coloring within the lines in kindergarten and, before we know it, we're coloring ourselves into lines until the day we die.  And why not?  In kindergarten, the teacher gives us a gold star for making a pretty picture and staying in the lines.  In high school and college, we matriculate by staying in the lines.  And, at work, we stay out of trouble by staying in the lines.  It all works kind of nicely and keeps us (or at least our parents and bosses) happy!

There's nothing wrong with choosing to live your life staying within the lines.  It's safe and, for some, the perfect solution for living a life over which you can cede control to someone else.  It's a good way to make "they, them and those" the topic of discussion (and disdain) at the dinner table or the backyard barbecue.  It's also easy and, as you know, we'll give up more than we probably should for a little dose of convenience.

But instead of staying within the lines, wouldn't it be more interesting to go outside the lines (or imagine them as being totally different)?  Isn't there a chance that you have something to offer that someone else's lines don't take into consideration?

I've decided that, for me at least, coloring outside the lines makes more sense than staying inside of them.  It gives me the permission I need to use my imagination, think things up, test theories and .... make lots of mistakes (an unfortunate but necessary consequence).  It also lets me be messy (or so some might say).  In fact, if you give me a line, I'll immediately start thinking about whether it's the real line... or just the line so far.  Not out of disrespect for your line, of course, but simply out of my own curiosity.  I may even stay in it, like the line at the DMV, because even I'm smart enough to know I can't win every battle (and I just happen to need my license renewed).

I'm not sure whether coloring outside the lines will lead me to any great, world-changing successes.  But think of it this way.  Al Gore colored in the lines his whole life.  After all, that's how his Daddy raised him.  Until November 2000 (or was it December when it was all said and done) when a hanging chad in Florida of all places prompted a sudden, if disputed, career change.  At first, Gore reacted, predictably I suppose, like someone who lived in lines he had drawn for him by someone else (but accepted nonetheless) ..... he cried and yelled about the unfairness of it all.  Until he wised up that is and figured out that he was now on the other side of the line.  Thanks largely to having his lines modified by the Florida chad, Mr. Gore is, as I write this, the proud owner of both an Academy Award and a Nobel Peace prize, an inconvenient truth though both may be.

So my advice to you is to stay within the lines if you like.  I won't tell, I promise.  But, if you you're just a little curious and you're not too scared .... don't be afraid to wonder "what's on the other side of the line?"