Our society seems to favor regementation. It is a requirement to follow a uniform code of behavior and style. This reporter has heard it said by others, “I am different, just like everyone else.” That statement makes no sense to me at all. It is an oxymoron. People who are actually different are routinely ostracized by the rest of the herd. Those of us grown up and around in the late sixties and seventies can remember when the “different” men started letting their hair grow long were criticized by the herd and called “long hairs.” I remember a song titled “Signs” one of the lines in it was “the sign said long-haired freaky people need not apply.” It was right under a sign that said Help wanted at a store.
Long ago when this reporter was in grade and high schools, a person had to look like the rest of the crowd or he/she was not a part of the crowd. Ridicule was the order of the day. I would let my sideburns grow and girls would ask, “who do you think you are Elvis Presley or something?” Fast forward to a later time when all males had the porkchop sideburns. Elvis and I were just a little ahead of the time and Elvis gets the credit for that trend. Historical credit for the first sideburns goes to a civil war general named Burnside who liked to let his hair grow down on his cheeks, hence the term sideburns.
Overall we Americans tend to be a pertinacious group of people. Once we form an opinion in our heads, “it’s my way or the highway.” We do not consider other viewpoints or actions. We look at life through a telescope, what we see is correct and what is not in our narrow view through our telescope is not acceptable.
There's an old Ricky Nelson song with a line in it, "you can't please everyone, so you got to please yourself." Sound advice in my book. Life is too short to try to be someone you are not, so be yourself and be happy!
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