About

Hi there. My name is Dana Wilder, and I am a chameleon.

In our culture, we have lost the ability to connect. I mean, truly connect with the things and people around us. The ability to drop what we once thought to be normal tradition and to willingly experience something completely new has perished. I am not referring to the millennial style of going out, traveling, and seeing the world. Instead, I mean the ability to connect with someone whom you seem to have nothing in common with and find that common ground: your humanity. This inability causes us to be harsh and closed off.

I am a person who loves symbolism, analogies, similes, etc., so I found it necessary to connect this upcoming journey with an overarching theme and analogy.

I picked chameleons due to their evolutionary ability to adapt to their environment as a means of survival. With the intent to survive, a chameleon blends in with its surroundings, forced to change. Sometimes, this change is unexpected, unplanned, and wishfully unnecessary.

There are people who constantly face change, not out of fear but out of necessity. People are marginalized, ostracized, oppressed, and, therefore, stricken to a life that forces them to adapt and seek refuge with a new path.  

Although these people are expected to change, their transition is not always easy or accepted. In fact, they face many predators, who pass judgment on them, due to the stark contrast between their lifestyles. This leads to barricading walls of xenophobia, sexism, racism, homophobia, and irrational prejudices that shut people in, forcing them to retreat into what we find comfortable, not necessarily correct. Much of this hate is driven by a willingness and acceptance of ignorance.

When we learn to be attracted to change and accept a chameleon-inspired life, we are more willing to be open, understand, seek to learn more about, and, most importantly, respect those whom are different from us. Likewise, our love and belief in humanity begins to flourish. Different is not dangerous; ignorance is dangerous.

Writing has never been my forte, but the price ticket on this opportunity is far too invaluable to pass. In short, forgive me for inconsistent grammar errors and unnecessarily lengthy, complex sentences. Aside from flawless grammar, the more difficult challenge is to connect you with people who are halfway across the world. Be patient and let me be your liaison to a chameleon life. Follow this journey, as I seek to find human connection with strangers.

I'll close with my favorite life lesson that I discovered for myself while in Syracuse, Sicily: you don’t have to go out and see the whole world to see the whole of humanity.

A presto,

the chameleon