We like to think of ourselves as being as individual as snowflakes. Each and every one of us has different fingerprints and I guess that the retina is even more indicative of individuality. God knows we all have different tastes in clothing, just look at the Walmart people! I know that my taste in food tends towards the bland and tasteless, you can’t really blame me, after all I have English ancestors. There are so many different makes and models of cars now that even automotive nuts have difficulty keeping track. I have about three hundred different channels that I can get on my TV and I swear that every little hamlet has a radio station. God (or Google, or Bill Gates) only knows how many blogs there are. We bloggers are just cranking out all of these individual thoughts that have never been said before. Uh-huh.
I was watching one of the 300 channels tonight, when a commercial came on about itchy scalps and the shampoo that will fix the dry, flaky skin that causes it. Even writing this my head is beginning to itch. Does it work when you read about it? How does that work, and why? We all know that when someone yawns at work or even in the line at the store, spontaneous yawning results. I usually give the people a stern talking to when I see it. Bad enough I am tired, I don’t need some stranger making me yawn. It works with itchy eyes as well. Just try rubbing your eyes in a crowd and see how many people copy you.
My buddy Ken and I would go down to Yonge street Toronto
So, what the hell am I going on about? Well, I think that we are not the individuals that we think we are. It seems that some of our individual responses are hard-wired into our genetic make up. Sure we have the choice of thousands of variations of the same clothes, in fact when I was my most individual; my “uniform” was a tie-dyed t-shirt and jeans. Business people wear suits and “office appropriate” clothing. Those kids with the sideways hats and pants down around their asses...well...they are just nuckin futs!
The food now is varied and wondrous. It seems that everyone is eating sushi, or vegan or what is it called when two different styles of food are combined? Oh yeah, salmonella. We tend to eat at restaurants that our peer group eats at. My daughter-in-law and son are “foodies” and I think they would like to broaden my culinary horizons. Good luck to them, but it is going to be an uphill battle.
I have friends that really know cars, and whenever I rent or buy a car they ask me those tough questions like what make is it? Ahhhh...kind of silver is my normal reply. I do feel stupid, but do they know what a Stanley no. 5 jack plane is used for? The last time we bought a car we got to pick the colour, well we got to pick one of five colours that were available. I remember when mom and dad would buy a car they had a choice of what seemed like hundreds of colours. The same yet different.
The TV choice falls into just a few varieties which seem to be getting fewer as “Reality” TV becomes more and more popular. Basically all of the shows are variations on a theme, because it costs too much to take a chance on something different. Plus, we are told in the commercials what the new hit shows will be and exactly which shampoo to use to prevent an itchy scalp. There it goes again!
I am not sure about the radio anymore; I listen to my ipod just like everyone else.
Now, as for all of these frickin’ blogs. There was a time when people used to write in diaries and journals if they thought that they needed to get their thoughts in order. I imagine there is some grad student doing psychological studies of just what kind of whack-a-doodle thinks what they have to say is important enough to put out there on the net for all to see.
Well, this individual, whack-a-doodle plans to keep doing this because it is good therapy and who knows, perhaps there might be some nugget of wisdom you will take away from it. I wouldn’t count on it though.
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