This is a green anole lizard. They are abundant in parts of Florida.

A favorite snack of snakes and birds, they have several survival mechanisms that allow them to navigate dangerous terrain.

They move quickly. I could more easily note where they had been than where they actually were. And they constantly threaded needles, darting between large slow roadblocks, such as two people talking. They seemed less inclined to go around obstacles than between them.

They change colors, to camouflage with their environment and not be seen.

And though often confused with chameleons, they are unrelated, which, in a sense, makes them super-chameleons. They don’t just blend with their environment. They blend with more famous lizards (Not to mention they pretty closely resemble a prominent car insurance spokeslizard. And they’re not him either).

All of which made them oddly familiar.

Many of us are better at surviving than we are at living.

We move quickly, so as not to be hindered by people who need attention or relationships that require work. And when we do appear, because we haven’t done the work, we often come between people more readily than we come alongside them. We haven’t found our place, so we try to take someone else’s.

We shift appearances, to fit into whatever environment we inhabit, rendering us adaptable, but largely inauthentic. We say the right things, but seldom mean them. We know how to act, but don’t say the risky things, the painful things, the things that give us life and the things that are killing us.

Like, “I love you.”

Or, “I’m scared.”

Or, “I don’t know what to do.”

We admire and mimic the lives of famous lizards, because famous lizards always know what to do. And they always look amazing doing it. Their lives are, however, neither applicable, nor affordable, nor even real. Chameleons put on appearances for a living. Exorbitant wealth is rare and brings its own trouble. Permanent smiles are fake. And none of us have all the answers.

The smartest people I know ask the best questions and join with other people to answer them.

We can do that.

Or we can disguise ourselves and run away like lizards.

The question is: do we want to survive, or do we want to live?