Hard to pigeon-hole? Sure, I take pride in it. I've used Enigma for my log-in. I enjoy it when people find out something about me and say, "I would never have thought that you'd ______!"
Aspen has a high concentration of oddities. Someone told me once that the Utes believed that there were metals in the mountains that attracted those sorts. We look at our friends and neighbors, our co-workers and fellow Roaring Fork Valley denizens and we say, "We're all a bunch of freaks."
And yet . . .
I don't want to be too different, too weird, too out there. I want to present normality but then, surprise.
Isn't this the American way? We give lip service to our individuality and yet, we secretly (or not so secretly) prize our conformity. When traveling, my husband always wants to stop at the out of the way place, the small local (read, non-chain) restaurant or hotel. But my comfort zone revolves more closely around the known. And, given the saturation of the McDonalds and the Best Westerns, I'm hardly alone.
Aspen has a high concentration of oddities. Someone told me once that the Utes believed that there were metals in the mountains that attracted those sorts. We look at our friends and neighbors, our co-workers and fellow Roaring Fork Valley denizens and we say, "We're all a bunch of freaks."
And yet . . .
I don't want to be too different, too weird, too out there. I want to present normality but then, surprise.
Isn't this the American way? We give lip service to our individuality and yet, we secretly (or not so secretly) prize our conformity. When traveling, my husband always wants to stop at the out of the way place, the small local (read, non-chain) restaurant or hotel. But my comfort zone revolves more closely around the known. And, given the saturation of the McDonalds and the Best Westerns, I'm hardly alone.
2 comments:
Amen! I find joy in being just a little different, while seeming so ordinary. When I was in my 20's co-workers would say I was "mysterious." I was in heaven. I hadn't even tried for "mysterious." Here in Korea I don't get that since it's assumed all foreigners are weird.
I agree that everyone wants to be normal (even I do), but I wish I didn't I wish I was brave enough to do whatever I wanted and not care what people think. Oh well maybe someday
Darling Daughter
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