Rebel Without A Cause

Day 186 (Written Friday June 15) ~ It dawned on me today that I am a rebel. I am an outcast, a freak, a weirdo, a non-conformist. I’m sure you are scratching your head at the thought of a middle age, preacher, husband and father being a rebel, but its true. Here’s why: I am a people watcher. Malls, ball games, amusement parks, hospitals, airports, wherever there are a large number of people I’ll be watching. In all of this people watching, here is what I’ve seen. Most people have some combination of tattoos, excess or non-traditional piercings, wild hair cuts or colors and outrageous clothing. I have none of these things. I wear normal boring clothes, my haircut is nothing unusual, I have no tattoos and despite my attempts at age thirteen, I never gotten a piercing. There was a time when people did these things in an attempt to be anti-social and to rebel against conformity, yet the paradox of today is that doing these things is very much a demonstration of conformity. I’m not criticizing, hating or judging anyone for these things, merely observing. To me, when you do these things you look just like most everyone else. When rebellion becomes trendy, conformity becomes rebellion. If Alice Cooper, Ozzy Osbourne or Kiss were to come out today instead of in the 70’s, no one would notice them. There would be nothing shocking about them at all. You could find a dozen 12 year olds that look just like them hanging out at the Hot Topic in the mall. Bottom line, anarchy has gone mainstream leaving traditional to be the new rebel. I guess that makes me, the church boy, a bad boy.