It's time to let the Unicorns go.

I sent the title of this blog as a text to my wife a few days ago as a reminder to myself to write this blog. Of course, it confused her when I sent it. It was rather random of course, yet it did have a point. It was one of those things that just exploded into my head while I was doing some kind of random, menial, boring task at work. So now I get to share it with you all!

I was thinking about an old song, The Unicorn Song, by the Irish Rovers. Now many of you might not remember this song, or have ever heard of it. If you choose not to listen to the link I will give you the gist here. Noah was loading the ark and he "forgot" the Unicorns. So in the world we live in now the Unicorns are no more. This is of course tragic. The perceived loss of this now mythical creature has been written about, filmed, and ignited the imaginations of many a young woman. But what if the Unicorn hadn't been forgotten? What if instead they were as common today as the horse is now. The cowboys of the wild west had ridden around on Unicorns and horses. What if some other animal had been missed instead, say, the dog was "missed", would they have become a creature of myth? Would modern literature be filled with stories of how only a virgin woman, pure of heart, could pet a dog? Would little women fall asleep with their minds wrapped in dreams of how they would love to see a real dog one day? (Oddly enough, I have the framework done on a story much like this, all base animals are almost extinct. Only the smallest still roam free on the face of the earth, but I digress.)

OK so you made it this far, so why did I entitle this "It's time to let the Unicorns go."? Well, it is actually a much deeper thought that I had. We, as in humanity, have created something huge out of an idea. The desire for something that isn't around, an impossibility if you will. The Unicorn...we seem to be trapped inside that idea, unable to break the chains of our own imagination. The search for something new has become a desperate race of repetition. Should any field of creativity break their chains of mediocrity and go against the grain, create something new. It is so quickly copied by the masses, in an attempt to recreate that wonder, that it loses the shine of originality.

So I put this forward to all my creative ( and non-creative as well ) friends. Take a chance now and again, break out of the simple pattern of repetition. Take the long way for once, just to see where it might lead you. Gamble on something new and exciting, instead of plodding along on in the ruts of recital. Open your eyes and see the color that can be your world. There are so many things in life that are available to so many people, yet they ignore them, or say "Next time". Don't allow yourself to go hunting after the same Unicorn as everyone else.

Let the Unicorn's go, and see what else might be just over that next hill. You  might be surprised at what you find.