Once upon a time, there was a little boy living in a small town. The town was just a dusty, mediocre, run down kinda town. But, the boy was an extraordinarily creative child. He made all sorts of strange and creative murals all over town.
One day when he was feeling extra creative, he painted his ear green. When he was walking downtown, many of the other townsfolk saw his green ear and took an interest. Soon, everyone in town was walking around with a green ear. But, the little boy then saw that everyone had a green ear, and he wasn’t the creative special one anymore, so he decided to paint his other ear red. Then like before, everyone painted their ear red as well, and the little boy wasn’t the special one anymore.
As time passed, everything the little boy did was copied by the townsfolk but then one day, the townsfolk began to become creative themselves and make their own designs and art. As this continued, the town began to fall apart, as the people focused so much on being creative, they stopped doing their work and making money. So, instead of paint his ears any color, he stayed became completely normal and boring. And like before, everyone else all followed his lead and became normal. Then he stayed that way, suppressing his creativity, as the town transformed into what is was before.
Over the years, he stayed like that, suppressing that creativity inside him so that his little town could sustain itself. He had a normal childhood, married a normal wife, and died a normal old man. And he never once regretted his decision, to help his town, even at the cost of suppressing his imagination.