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The sad fact is, we, as a people, argue about our differences. We argue about politics because we have different opinions of what we want from government. We argue about religion because we have different beliefs of what it means to be a good person and what happens when you die. We argue about whether World of Warcraft is better than Everquest 2 because we want different things from our gaming experiences. These arguements will never be won because these differences can never be changed. We are different in every way, and we always will be. Never is this a bad thing, but sometimes, we forget that people aren't all the same.

If we like to listen to punk music (which I personally enjoy doing), then we try to get others to listen to it. Partly, it's because we think we are nice people and want to share this great thing which has enriched our lives. Well, if that were only the case, why would there be arguements over whether classical is better than heavy metal? Because we don't just do it for the other person's benefits. We do it to justify our own position. If we can convince someone else to like what we like, then that makes that bond we have with them stronger, and makes that like more defendable.

Or does it?

When it comes right down to it, we put ourselves out there with what we like. It's too easy to say "Anybody who likes XXX is a moron" and hurt those people's feelings. Mocking anything will always be safer than admitting you enjoy it. That's why things like South Park and, sometimes, Penny Arcade seem cowardly to me. When you refuse to take a stance, you are basically going on a tiny little superiority trip. You are better than everyone who likes XXX because they must be a moron to like something you see no value in.

I think that sometimes we forget that we don't have the same values. I may feel a little superior to people who think Jeff Foxworthy is funny, but then I didn't grow up in the kind of households that can identify with his jokes. I laugh at jokes that take on a political, observant, or even mathematical nature because I've studied enough of these subjects that I can get them. I don't think it's geeky to laugh at a math joke. It's geeky to know enough math to get the joke. If you don't get math jokes, you feel left out. To feel better, you attribute some sort of problem with liking math jokes.

Even beyond nurture, we've got nature to thank. We are not created equal, in a sense, because we each have very different things that we bring to and take from life, and these are not such simplistic things as you might think. We have different things which we need in order to function, and as strange as it sounds, this need is not what we generally credit. We have this perception that we need basic things like food, shelter, exercise, clothes, and stuff like that. True as it may be that those basic needs are there to keep the body running, but what about the mind? Or the spirit? What do those need?

This is different between people. In my case, I need to be creative. I know that I'm a smart individual, yet I dropped out of college. The reason is because I didn't have the room I needed to be creative. Well, that and other complications, but mostly the creative thing. I've quit a lot of jobs I've had in complete disgust because I was typically shoved into a retail environment or a cubicle of some sort and told to do work in a very specific, and typically unagreeable, way. I ned to find my path between point A and point B. My path has to be none other than my own. It cannot be your path.

This need for creativity presses down on all aspects of my life. Tasks which require no creativity are essentially like pressing needles into my eyes. Yes, I am fully capable of doing these things. It's just that I never think to do them. It's kind of like doing all your homework, only to find out the next day that you forgot to do an English paper that was due. It's like you meant to not write it, it just slipped your mind because it wasn't important to you. You knew you'd get it done in no time, so you didn't worry about it. It was just such a non-event that it never even registered with you.

As such, I'm pretty much socially retarded. I can't do simple things like operate a washer, because the second I learn how to use it, that information is gone within ten minutes. In all honesty, I sometimes forget how to make a sandwich. These are what I could consider flaws. They prevent me from ever functioning in the world - but that doesn't mean that I can't contribute to it. I created this journal, and the novel that I'm writing, because the only way I can contribute to the world is if I am my own worldly boss and have the freedom to explore my creativity in every way.

A lot of my past girlfriends have been completely unlike me. They are responsible and dependable in every way that I am not. I will tell you right now that as much creativity as I have, you wouldn't be reading this journal were it not for outside influences. AniHQ are the ones who got the domain name, deal with the server stuff, and supply merchandise that I drool over. Beyond that, I only provide a meager donation every month, with admittedly selfish reasons. I have every reason to believe that I can make a modest living off of my writing (and maybe even my speaking) abilities, but that takes time which God provides me. It takes technical support which He delivers. And it takes patience, of which He has an infinite amount.

When it comes down to it, it's the talents of people who aren't me that make this journal, and my thoughts, possible. We do our parts to make sure that the things I write remain either funny, edifying, or not a total waste of time, and that they're something that are worth coming to. Though our jobs are very different, they are equally difficult and equally important. Without God, there'd be no creativity in me. Without AniHQ, there'd be no journal here for you to read. I would've never even gotten to the point where you readers would even know I existed without the support of God and my friends, nor the hard work of AniHQ. I've started probably over a thousand different creative projects, and only finished maybe two or three of them. Why? Because I went them alone. That mistake caused each project to be abandoned after only a few days, or weeks, at most. My best friend, better known here on Gaia as Gothy McAngstydie, and I are planning on starting a Web comic based on our Gaia personalities soon, and being a sprite manipulator is something he knows and is good at, which means that he can support this project well past where I would've gotten frustrated and quit. This comic, which has about 4 strips done thus far, exists because he helps is exist, just like the merchandise that we're thinking about creating for it, because he's willing to physically pick me up and slap me silly until I have the drive to get things done.

It's not that I'm incapable of doing these things. It is within my ability to do things like that, I'm sure, just like it's completely in Gothy's ability to write the dialog for the strips. I think the reason we are good at the things we do is because we have no uncertainty when working towards our strengths. When I write anything, it is completely within my creative power that was granted to me by God. I'm in control, unless God says otherwise. When Gothy does something as simple manipulating the avatars for the comic, he's in control - or at least controlling his involvement with it. But when the roles are switched, there is a certain amount of uncertainty that we both would face. I am not naturally dependable, and being so is quite draining for me. I expect that he is not as naturally creative as I am (not sure...that subject has never come up between the two of us, and probably never will), and being so is probably quite draining for him, as well.

It's easy to see how this journal wouldn't exist without me to write the comics and paint pictures with my words. That's almos too obvious. But what isn't obvious is that creativity is too crafty to exist in a vacuum. If you can create an edifying journal post, then you can write Web comics, or create a video game, or write a book, or do any number of a thousand projects. Everything will fail at the slightest weakness, with a new creativity project just ready to take its place. Every project that I've ever tried to do has failed except the comic and my novel - and that's because this isn't just my project. It's the project of everybody involved: Gothy, God, you readers, and I.

So maybe being different isn't so bad. When you are flawed, perhaps there is someone else out there equally flawed, but in different ways. Maybe the fact that we disagree in politics is what keeps us honest. Maybe the Conservatives complete the Democrats and the Democrats complete the Conservatives; weak individually, but together capable of making a tiny group of thirteen colonies and eventually becoming one of the most powerful nations in the world. With just one viewpoint, this country would've crumbled under its own weight centuries ago.

If we all belonged to one religion, we'd all be extremists. We wouldn't have conflicting points of view to keep us honest. We'd ignore science, and pretend that dinosaurs didn't exist. We'd truly be in a third-world dark age. But science alone is amoral. Religion keeps science sane. Keeps it from going too far. There are a million questions out there that science can answer that perhaps we shouldn't be in such a hurry to discover just yet. We move slowly because society can't handle the kind of all encompassing changes that science can go through on a regular basis. They are at odds with each other, but in a strange way, they support each other through their differences.

It is our differences which make us stronger. I don't think I ever really appreciated that before. I paid lip service to that idea time and time again, but it never really hit home until just recently. We are differen't. We should be different. And no matter how much it angers us that someone else isn't like us, the solution isn't to despise one another. By all means, stay mad - if it keeps you honest. But understand that it would be really bad if we were all the same.