You would've probably heard of this phrase recently if you watched 'The Perks of being a Wallflower.'
It actually refers to a children's book called "The Island of Misfit Toys." In this story, all the weird toys are sent to an island to live together. They are all defective and mostly unwanted. Irony is, they think of themselves as really special!
To understand this concept, which by all means I believe today we are more than aware of, picture the characters. There is a bird that doesn't fly but swims, a boat that can't float, a beer with wings, a train with square wheels and jelly squirting pistols. So much so that toys are misfits even because of their names! It is commendable how many parallels can be drawn from them. On one hand, characters and their 'mis-fitted-ness' is kept simple for a child to understand, on the other, it poses a question- where is the line between weird and special drawn? I must comment not much creativity went into the little speck of 'weirdness' that the writer introduced in all characters. But it is enough to convey the idea to a child.
Bottom-line- weird people, simple aberrations, universal flaws, all misfits and yet special.
Now this place is not normal, because no one with least of normalcy is allowed to be an inhabitant. The normalcy being referred to is actually a basic deal where they showcase people lacking basic social norms. These are people who have traits that challenge the normal. I mean if you are a fish who flies, you are just a bird. But you have traits of a fish...so these toys have to acknowledge their lack of basic life skills and continuously improvise to be a part of social structure.
I was fairly intrigued and watched several episodes of this series. There is enough wisdom not to overlook. For instance the idea of being 'Independent together.' The toys arrive at this solution when they are tired of being an outcast because of being different. They decide they will all be together, and celebrate the fact that they a re so different. They just decide that they will be together and accept what is different in them. They would co-exist side-by-side without trying to change themselves to fit the convention.
That is a simple solution and needs implementation to a greater extent. Half of our life is spend trying to fit-in. Fit in the country, people, office, social circle and culture. The need to belong makes us put efforts to change ourselves and be a part of the larger group. This actually leads to discontentment because the person who ends up belonging is a version of you that has tweaked its basic essence. This masquerading can give someone a sense of gratification owing to a larger picture but that is conjunct with the fact that one is not being oneself. As long as we can decide to live independently together- we can be happier.
So the train with square wheels decides to roll with the one with circular wheels. They go on their own pace but are still rolling together...And then it isn't difficult anymore. They just live independently together. This leads to the an important lesson of how everyone has a different way of looking and doing things. That is what leads to innovation. Trying to belong by changing who you are just to fit-in will actually create clones of people who think alike and behave alike. Often when we have spent enough time with someone- friends or loved ones , we realize how we infer similarly in similar situations, it does not mean that you are great together and fit in oh-so-perfectly like a match made in heaven... It only means you have gradually aligned yourself towards a polarization. This is not necessarily a bad thing because this is bound to happen. What is not great is if it's done deliberately... hence be prepared for the common statement of "You have changed so much, not the same person I loved!" It also means you have stopped challenging your own interpretations and in the long run, it is neither advisable, not sustainable.
What's worth a take away is that's that we need to learn - to be independent together, no matter how misfit we are. There is no need to change for the sake of belonging somewhere. The idea of changing oneself for belongingness is completely flawed. You can still co-exist being different with your own differences and individuality. You say this can make you lonely? Want to know what happens in the end of the story?
I was fairly intrigued and watched several episodes of this series. There is enough wisdom not to overlook. For instance the idea of being 'Independent together.' The toys arrive at this solution when they are tired of being an outcast because of being different. They decide they will all be together, and celebrate the fact that they a re so different. They just decide that they will be together and accept what is different in them. They would co-exist side-by-side without trying to change themselves to fit the convention.
That is a simple solution and needs implementation to a greater extent. Half of our life is spend trying to fit-in. Fit in the country, people, office, social circle and culture. The need to belong makes us put efforts to change ourselves and be a part of the larger group. This actually leads to discontentment because the person who ends up belonging is a version of you that has tweaked its basic essence. This masquerading can give someone a sense of gratification owing to a larger picture but that is conjunct with the fact that one is not being oneself. As long as we can decide to live independently together- we can be happier.
So the train with square wheels decides to roll with the one with circular wheels. They go on their own pace but are still rolling together...And then it isn't difficult anymore. They just live independently together. This leads to the an important lesson of how everyone has a different way of looking and doing things. That is what leads to innovation. Trying to belong by changing who you are just to fit-in will actually create clones of people who think alike and behave alike. Often when we have spent enough time with someone- friends or loved ones , we realize how we infer similarly in similar situations, it does not mean that you are great together and fit in oh-so-perfectly like a match made in heaven... It only means you have gradually aligned yourself towards a polarization. This is not necessarily a bad thing because this is bound to happen. What is not great is if it's done deliberately... hence be prepared for the common statement of "You have changed so much, not the same person I loved!" It also means you have stopped challenging your own interpretations and in the long run, it is neither advisable, not sustainable.
What's worth a take away is that's that we need to learn - to be independent together, no matter how misfit we are. There is no need to change for the sake of belonging somewhere. The idea of changing oneself for belongingness is completely flawed. You can still co-exist being different with your own differences and individuality. You say this can make you lonely? Want to know what happens in the end of the story?
In the end, all misfit toys are picked by Santa and delivered to the children who would like to play with the misfit toys. They find a place where they belong-just the way they are.
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