Every year when the Tucson Gem Show rolls into town… Life changes for just a few weeks. There is something about this unique gathering of people and crystals from all over the world that can not be easily duplicated! Vendors in tents, hotel rooms, warehouses and dirt parking lots. Each one, carving a unique life, out of the mineral kingdom.
As a rock hound, I can honestly say there is nothing like it. At the same time, I realize that it is a microcosm or hologram of many other social, cultural, workplace, community and family systems that are part of our everyday existence. There is a full range of participants, pecking order, leaders, followers, inner-circle and those operating on the fringe! When I look at it this way… I look at how I fit in… and more importantly, how much the need to “fit-in” changes as time goes by!
Isn’t this true for our day-to-day lives as well? Certainly as I get older, I find that fitting in to situations, groups or communities is much less important to me, than it was in the past. There have been many times when I tried (and sometimes succeeded) to assimilate or fit into particular groups or dynamics that I perceived to be desirable! I had decided these groups were better, or more popular, influential, had status or hipness or something that I thought was important. Conforming to what I thought their requirements were.
Today… It feels like any of these situations or groups are fine… I just don’t feel compelled to change something about myself in order to fit in. These days, the groups that I identify with appear to form more organically. There are fewer rules to follow or hoops to jump through. It is easier to fit in.., and if it is a group that I am on the fringe of… That is okay too!
I guess this is one of the benefits of getting older! The freedom to be who you are and feel comfortable in your own skin! I like it! And who knew that wandering around the Tucson Gem & Mineral show would trigger such a reflective view of my day to day existence! Oh who am I kidding!?! I am surrounded by crystals, rocks and stones! Of course they are stimulating insights! It is what they DO!