Don’t go with the Flow

“If all your friends jumped off a bridge would you jump too?”
When your mom asked this question, she clearly wanted you to answer “No”
But in reality the answer should vary depending on the
Height of the bridge, the depth of the water, the speed of water current and your ability to swim.
Cause sometimes bridge jumping wakes up your soul and reminds you you’re alive
And sometimes bridge jumping breaks your spinal cord and paralyzes you for life
Sometimes moms know what they are talking about.

But sometimes moms don’t, so don’t mindlessly accept your parent’s proverbs,
Cause the proverb about the bridge is really about thinking for yourself.
Cause if all your moms jumped off a bridge would you jump too?

But seriously, don’t be swept up in the streams of conformity
You can’t just go with the flow, cause often the flow flows off a cliff
And though we think waterfalls are pretty, I’m pretty sure that the droplets would disagree.
It seems to me that for a water droplet that would be scary.
Everything the droplet ever knew, everything he based his life on is gone.
The earth literally disappears beneath his feet and all he has is 50 ft to contemplate a life unlived.
And when they get into freefall it’s every droplet for himself,
No more co-operation, just frantic contemplation,
And unlived lives flash by their eyes, as the rocks below seem to grow in size.
As the droplets drop to their demise, one drop opens his mouth and cries
“I really should have thought about where this would lead us”

So before we leave the shore, let’s discover our destination
And before we set the sails, let’s look into navigation
It’s not good to go “wherever the wind will take us”
To rush towards whatever rocks will break us
Don’t trust the whims of the wind:
There’s a reason why nobody travels via hot air balloon

Sometimes you got to be like a salmon, swimming upstream
Holding onto your dream that the struggle is worthwhile.
Though the water is hostile, fighting against you mile after mile
At the end you have chance to be fertile.
Sometimes all the other fish are gonna swim in the opposite direction
But don’t strive for popularity, strive for perfection.
No matter which way the waves flow,
Look towards the light: that’s the direction you should go

But don’t be a rebel without a cause,
Seeking only to revel in the applause of admiration.
Cause sometimes it’s cool to go against the flow
And I know that every river has an undertow
So although you might hate status quo,
You’re no more of an “Uno” than an everyday John Doe.
You just go with a different flow, a flow below the surface.

Cause sometimes the people who pretend to be different
Only try to be different so they can fit in.
That’s sounds a lot like conformity to me
We need to take our minds up off our shelves,
Dust them off and think for ourselves.

Cause as life progresses it gets progressively more difficult to escape conformity
So start thinking for yourself while you’re still young. Or at least younger than you will be
And you will be grateful, in years to come that you have come so far
Saying “Au revoir” to conformity

And if you ask me the key is not not going with the flow
But knowing where the flow goes
And it goes without saying that sometimes the path our world is laying is a good one
But often it’s not, which is why we need thought to think things through
Before we walk down the path of destruction
Let’s find the blue prints before we start construction
And then finally we might just build a better world.