Different
by Wes Fessler

To be different is to engage in a behavior that appears out of the ordinary to others. The moose depicted above may look unusual to you and I, but appearance is the last thing on this creature’s mind. Fresh summer blossoms are an irresistible treat to this moose, which has just worked up an appetite by swimming across a lake. All that matters to this moose is finding a way to lower its head to the level of the delicious, low growing flowers.

While others may try to eat the flowers from a standing position, this one is content to bend its knees to the ground for the snack. When over 9,000 calories must be consumed in a day, this moose knows that it is going to take a hefty serving of them to satisfy such a craving. No, the moose could not be convinced to sit down for the meal, but the flowers taste just as good whether standing, sitting, or somewhere in between.

Being different is neither good nor bad in the world of a moose, and it is only peculiar to humans who relate their perceptions of normalcy to that which humankind, the greatest imitators of all of the animal kingdom do. As a rule, humans do what other humans do. We labor in tasks that someone else has set up for us, we eat food that others have prepared for us, and we socialize to discover what others are doing so that we can fit in and be “normal.”

While many humans follow the crowd, some of us are also extraordinarily capable of being different. Some humans are fully aware of what is acceptable to other humans and do exactly the opposite to stand out and rebel from the norm. There are humans that go to great lengths to separate themselves from what is common and ordinary to the point of irritating many who adhere to societal “norms.” There are some who behave in ways that are distasteful and very different to others. These too, however, are soon enough followed by others who begin to follow such rebels by imitating them and doing exactly what they do, until their extreme behavior is also blended into the norm of society.

Whatever is different about a moose is certainly not the same as what is different in people. What is different about a moose allows it to enjoy simple pleasures without worry about what any other moose, human, or any other creature thinks or says about an action, such as stooping to eat a flower. What is different about humans is that the more we try to be different from one another, the more we become the same. While none of this can be clearly defined as good or bad in the moose or human world, one thing about the moose makes that distinguishes it from any human is that it is perfectly content to be different, whether anyone notices, or not.