It Takes All Kinds

Transcript

I think a lot about this phrase it takes all types to make a world.

When I researched the origin of the phrase I was actually surprised to find it comes from Don Quijote which is very interesting and kind of puts a different context on this expression.

I’ll read out the passage in Spanish and then kind of translate it a little. In this scene what’s happening is Don Quijote is telling his wife he is going to do battle again. And he says:

“- Mira, amiga –respondió don Quijote-, no todos los caballeros pueden ser cortesanos, ni todos los cortesanos pueden ni deben ser caballeros andantes: de todos ha de haber en el mundo; y aunque todos seamos caballeros, va mucha diferencia de los unos a los otros”.

So what he’s saying to his wife is “look my friend, he responds, not all knights can be knights of court and not all knights of court can be in battle. There must be all types in this world. Even though we might all be knights there must also be a lot of difference between some and others.

This is funny and I find this extremely Ironic. I don’t know if Cervantes intended this irony but now these phrase means that when we see someone doing something strange. Or if we see someone with strange habits or ways of thinking we can say “It takes all types to make a world, some people can go and be different and they have a place in this world too.”

But in the original context Don Quijote is kind of making this speech of a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do speech like “I must be one of those who goes out and does battle.”

Its extremely ironic because he’s deluded. He’s not going out to do battle but that’s what he believes so he is one of these unusual people with unusual ways of viewing the world.

I think about this a lot because there was a time not so long ago this is an extremely christian expression I can say there must be all types in this world because it wasn’t so long ago that if someone was unusual they were treated extremely unkindly.

There were witch hunts for people who had deformities or things like that or behaved strangely. Others believed they must be wicked.

But the good thing is in this day and age we can accept people who are different as part of the society and I think its entirely a good thing. You might remember in that ad campaign for Apple but sometimes the ads are very good.

They say think differently or the campaign “here’s for the crazy ones”. People who are crazy enough to think they can change the world sometimes do. There are people out there the frontiers people, the people who are willing to push the boundaries of what it means to be human or of thought. Expanding ideas even though it becomes uncomfortable.

Even though it might push the bounds of society.

When Tesla comes out with at one point he came out making grand predictions, I think he even…don’t quote me because there are a lot of strange rumors about Tesla.

But he might some interesting predictions about our future would like look like. He might have even said there would be personal computers in our pocket and we would use them for communication and this sort of thing because he saw further and he did pay the price. People were resistant to that.

There are two sides to this I suppose. One is that we can embrace people who are different with strange ideas. That’s a wonderful part of the world.

The other side of it is when we do we take those risks, go out on a limb and be a little daring out onto the frontiers of thought. Maybe we will risk a bit of social abandonment. Maybe it will be worth it to explore those bounds of concepts, thinks that are a bit different.

Things that maybe no one has thought before. What will come from that interesting curious exploration of the mind?

Thank you for thinking a little differently and for embracing those people who are a bit different.