I Don't Want To Be Just One Thing

I painted this last week called "I Don't Want To Be Just One Thing." It is one of my favorites that I've done so far. It is a reference to Divergent, a novel by Veronica Roth. However, it is an idea that is really significant to me.

The quote that it is titled after is actually from the movie:

"I don't want to be just one thing, I can't be. I want to be brave and I want to be selfless, intelligent and honest and kind." 

But the quote from the book is what really made the concept powerful to me:

“We've all started to put down the virtues of the other factions in the process of bolstering our own. I don't want to do that. I want to be brave, and selfless, and smart, and kind, and honest." 

I don't want to be just one thing. I don't want to focus only on one attribute of myself. I want to be all of it. I want to be kind, selfless, honest, brave and intelligent. And I want to uplift these characteristics in others as well.

These attributes are in the order that I hold them dear. If I were in the Divergent world, I would hands down be Amity, the ones who hold kindness over everything else. I mean I already strive to live in joy and work in my garden everyday. It doesn't get much closer than that in the real world. 

The one I really struggle with is bravery. It is what I have been working hard on lately. I believe bravery is important, especially how Veronica Roth describes it here:

"We believe in ordinary acts of bravery, in the courage that drives one person to stand up for another."

This is a book that really resonated with me. I enjoyed the idea of each individual characteristics creating a whole identity in each personality and in society. Each unique person will uphold these ideas in a different way. It reveals that our society will never agree completely on what the "right" way to live is; however, we can strive to uphold what makes us who we are without having to apologize for it. In the end, it all works together to complete the whole.

I created this piece of art as a reminder of the kind of person I want to be: 

• I want to be kind and always lift others up. 
• I want to be selfless and always remember there are ones who need and suffer more than I, and I can help them in big and small ways. 
• I want to be honest and genuine, I want to be able to be who I am without fear of reproach. 
• I want to be brave and do the things that scare me, especially when it comes to standing up for kindness, selflessness, honesty and knowledge. 
• I want to be intelligent and obtain knowledge to understand how the world works and why.

*If you are interested in making painted word art like this, check out my How-To article called, "DIY: Painted Word Art."*