Truth be told this happened quite a while back… and I was quite happy when it did. Relieved actually.
So, what am I talking about here?
Two words: peer fear.
Yeah, we all succumbed to it especially in our teen years. Remember when you were a closet ABBA fan? Or when you participated in a group scoff whenever someone let it slip that they liked that CARPENTERS song? But secretly you melted every time you heard Karen Carpenter’s voice.
Your life was ruled by the “must read” books or the “must-see” films. (Notice it was film… not movie. Right there… that’s what I’m talking about.)
Gravitas ruled… or at least the perception of it. If something did not have that gravitas it was just a trifle… an empty bauble to be tossed into the dirt along with the entire BARRY MANILOW catalog. (Come on now… he writes the songs that make the whole world sing.)
Pretension and snobbery can be so stifling. It robs you of a wider human experience.
For instance, I like jazz… and disco. Yet, I have friends who find this tough to resolve about me. Do I like all jazz? No. Do I like all disco? No. There is good and bad in all genres just like everything else. Besides, taste is a very personal thing.
The irony is not lost on me that at certain periods in our lives we were striving to be different and set apart from the popular zeitgeist. So, how do we accomplish this? By joining a “taste club” of peers. How very “individual”, eh?
Anyway, I tossed out those shackles a long while ago and have not looked back… except to write this post, that is.
Not that I particularly subscribe to the present zeitgeist either. Like, I’m not particularly into the current zombie or superhero craze. I know… a weirdo, right?
I’ve formulated my own taste. True, it is an acquired one… but it is my own. I’d like to think it reflects who I am and how life shaped me.
I am now free to proudly admit that I do like The Carpenters and 70’s disaster movies and… a good many things that would have got me socially ostracised among my peers. I am unafraid to come off as uncool simply because of my personal preferences.
So, this is my count this week because it opens so much more of the world to me.
