CONFORMITY

The jeweler in a small town noticed a man stopping each morning in front of his store, pulled a gold watch and set the time to his large clock in the store window. He did this every day. One day the jeweler was at the door and spoke to this man who always wore overalls. "I see you setting your watch by my big clock each morning. What do you do at the factory?' he asked. The man finished winding his watch, and replied. "I'm the timekeeper and every day at noon my job is to blow the big whistle which tells everyone in town that it is noon and time to quit for lunch."

The jeweler then said "That's odd. I've been setting that big clock in the window every day, by the noon whistle at the factory." Whether this story is true or not, it makes each of us realize that what others do, their conduct, and how to behave should be checked for generalizations.

Emerson once said "Insist on being yourself; never imitate. Your own
gift can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life's cultivation; but of the adopted talent of another you have only an extemporaneous half-possession.