So today is, again, "Talk like a pirate day." It doesn't interest me. In fact, I find it a bit annoying. I don't mind playing with language. I rather enjoy that. That's why I like Rocky and Bullwinkle and DangerMouse despite the decidedly less than stellar animation. The word play is fun. But there's something about the artificiality of the pirate-speak that just grates. It doesn't so much play with language as just add extra syllables that grind against what should be there.

It could also be that it feels so... forced. Somehow I find I can take things easier if I happen upon them, rather than suddenly find myself surrounded or immersed in them. Sometimes folks claim that I simply resist the popular and am controlled, if in reverse, by it. It's easy to see how it could appear that way, but it really isn't. It's not as if I would be abandoning something I liked just because it suddenly gained popularity. More likely I'd be astonished at the sudden improvement in taste or judgment.

It's sort of just having a low saturation point, I suppose, for some things. Or not liking to be told what to do or think. I'm far more likely to look into something, eventually, if a recommendation is of an "oh, by the way, you might want to look into this" rather than the domineering "You gotta see this!" There is also experience. Too many times I checked out a "You gotta see this!" thing and found it disappointing. And then it was a matter of "How can you not see how great it is?! There must be something wrong with you." Feh. If I happened across something, I could decide for myself without such hassles. Maybe I'd leave it. Maybe I'd take it. But the decision was mine and that was that. No hassles.

Years ago, when Star Wars first came out, I experienced saturation. It might have been interesting - then. But I'd had enough long before seeing it. I can't stand Casablanca either. Not because it's a bad movie. I've read a transcript or close to it and it does read quite good. I just can't stand to watch it. I know it was the source of many cultural references, but being surrounded by them for so long the whole thing comes off, if wrongly, as one big annoying cliche. Give me Citizen Kane. Nobody tried to get to me to see it. I decided to for myself. That's also likely why I like Animaniacs and some other WB cartoons as much as I do. They weren't thrust upon me. It more a matter of my discovering (or rediscovering) them.

One thing for which I am really grateful to my folks is that I was never pushed into anything. I was exposed to a lot, but it was on my terms if it went anywhere. I didn't read Modern Chemistry or Elements of Radio because I had to or because everybody or even anybody else was doing it. I read them because I wanted to. I was encouraged, but not pushed. Interests expressed got noticed and perhaps aided. But there were no designated footsteps to follow in. They also didn't go in for whatever the trend of the day was. And so I inherited a sort of immunity to it.

Of course there is also a downside. Independence comes at a price. A sort of exclusion. It doesn't matter if anyone thinks is it because of myself or others. The effect is the same. If it is myself, and I change to be included, am I really still my own person? I rather doubt it. Compromising ones principles, which does indeed include tastes, destroys the real self.

The price of independence is solitude.