Wake Up

Recently I had the opportunity to see a great movie called Divergent. It is a film based in a post apocalyptic future, where in order to maintain a functioning society, everyone is separated in five different factions or separated all together without a faction. The factions are based on your strongest and overwhelming attribute, like: kindness, bravery, selflessness, honesty, and knowledge. Each member of society takes an aptitude test that will determine which attribute they personify and helps them determine which faction to join and ultimately they only pursue perfection in that singular attribute and nothing else for the rest of their life. For the main character though, her test did not determine a single attribute that she personified but showed that she best personified three of the five, which made her Divergent and a "threat" to the entire order of the society. Which is the conflict seen in the rest of the movie.

Many things came to mind while and after I watched this film. I think there are many parallels with our society that we can take from this story. Although we do not have this literal faction separation, we do have factions or labels that we put on ourselves and others. We label children very early on with labels of ADHD, special needs, slow, gifted, honor students, etc. We give standardized tests to see if someone is allowed to go to college to receive "higher" education. People are placed in social circles that help them excel in business, like the old phase says, "it's not what you know, it's who you know." We all know that grumpy person, the needy person, the smart one, the super optimistic one, the person that everyone likes, the sickly one, the quiet one etc. Factions really exist and sadly we tend to become what we have been told we are or the label that has been given to us.

So my words to all those that read this, WAKE UP. Like the heroine in the movie, you do not need to conform to the labels that others or yourself has placed on you. You can have all the positive attributes that you want and become whatever you want to be. It takes work to develop who you want to be, and at times it is very difficult, but you can overcome any label! You do not need to accept labels like lazy, diseased, dumb, etc. The world needs more people awake to their potential. Our society is more threatened by labeled drones then by those that are truly living life, truly awake. Make doubters believers and become "Divergent."

-Mike E