🦞Be The Lobster

Today I remembered how Elizabeth Gilbert told a true story in her magnificent book Big Magic about a man who arrived at a grand medieval‑themed party dressed as a lobster. Everyone else wore elegant gowns, velvet capes and Renaissance finery — and there he stood, bright red, clawed, and unmistakably out of place.

For a moment, he froze. He had misread the dress code. He felt ridiculous. He wanted to disappear.

But then he did something remarkable. He straightened his costume, lifted his chin, and introduced himself — confidently — as the lobster in a royal court.

And he became the most popular guest at the party.

I think about this often.

How many times we enter a room feeling like the lobster — too different, too bold, too strange, too much. How many times we fear we’ve misread the expectations, the norms, the unspoken rules.

But identity isn’t about blending in. It’s about showing up as yourself, even when the room wasn’t designed for you.

The lobster wasn’t wrong.

He was simply honest.

And people respond to honesty.

To clarity.

To someone who stands in their own shape without apology.

So here’s the reminder I keep close:

Be the lobster.

Show up as yourself — even when the room looks nothing like you expected.

Especially then.