Assimilation

To be similar or not to be similar, that should not be the question. You are told to be yourself, and then to stay that way. But what you are, is what you have become, and becoming is a process of assimilation.

Being yourself means being natural; expressing yourself without force and constraint and letting your being flow along without resistance. It doesn’t mean always staying the same, for to do that you would have to use force and resist your nature.

Assimilation is natural. The child gets formed by its environment and molded by society and culture and when coming to age a person is a mixture of it all, including its innate self. It is all natural. And the process doesn’t stop. Grown individuals continue to be shaped by their surroundings and only the most stubborn brute refuses to move.

A natural process is what occurs when no one is trying to manipulate its course. Nature is always natural, while force and compulsion are human activities.

It’s unnatural to force people to assimilate, but when it happens without force, it’s unnatural to resist.

It is also unnatural to deny people the chance to assimilate by closing doors and building walls across communities.

There exist societies where cultures have been living next to each other for generation without assimilating. It is sometimes praised as multiculturalism and it’s undeniably a fascinating phenomenon, but underneath the colorful surface there will always be a history of force; the dominant culture acting as a force denying access to those who are not similar to itself.

Don’t try to make them similar, and don’t try to keep them from becoming similar. Don’t try to become, and don’t resist becoming.

Be yourself. Be and let be. Similar to this or that or quite different, that is not the question.

https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2020/06/16/your-daily-word-prompt-assimilate-ydwordprompt-June-16-2020/