I have spent most of my life worried whether or not I was doing things right. From how to wear my hair to what kind of molding to use with wood floors.
In the year 2000 while in mid-build on our house, I was in an argument with a sub-contractor about where to place an outlet. He absolutely refused to put one where I wanted it and in response to my inquiry of "why not?", his self assured response was "because it's just never done that way."
At that moment I had a life altering epiphany, I knew that there was no building code issue...it was safe...someone...somewhere had made a decision that it was not a proper thing to do and it became an unquestionable, non-reproachable standard.
In the year 2000 while in mid-build on our house, I was in an argument with a sub-contractor about where to place an outlet. He absolutely refused to put one where I wanted it and in response to my inquiry of "why not?", his self assured response was "because it's just never done that way."
At that moment I had a life altering epiphany, I knew that there was no building code issue...it was safe...someone...somewhere had made a decision that it was not a proper thing to do and it became an unquestionable, non-reproachable standard.
From then on I've questioned just about every taken for granted decision I've had to make when it was prefaced by any variation of, "is this the right way t0____, correct thing for____, proper behavior of____?"
I've always been a rebel at heart and now I have a healthy way of diverting that streak by going against the tide of popular beliefs, standards, rules, even styles!
Now I'm not going to drive on the wrong side of the road (even though the colonies have made a point of their break from Brittan), that's just common sense, but I will be curly when straight is in, and wear pink because it looks good on me even though green is all the rage. I will not put shoe molding on my baseboards or tile on my back splash, and just because someones kid, many years ago, got their head stuck in a rail doesn't mean I will live with rails that have gaps no larger than 4".
I will use rugs and quilts for table clothes, picture frames for place mats, flower boxes for towel racks, plumbing pipe for curtain rods, and ice buckets for lamps. I will wear sneakers because they are comfortable and my hair long because my husband loves it that way. I will not wear 4" heels and deform my feet and throw my back out because some guy, or worse some young 20 year old girl, says that's what I should do to be in style.
I will pray over meals in restaurants because I'm thankful that the Lord has provided in such a wonderful way, not simply to make a point. I'll chat with strangers in line at the grocery store at the risk of looking uncool. At a rock concert I will sit with my eye's closed and truly listen rather than stand, scream, jump and hear nothing but noise.
I will vote my conscience not "our" conscience. I will be the one lemming to stand and watch the mad rush over the cliff.
There is a campy old comedy called Earth Girls are Easy in which aliens crash land on earth and try to use common everyday objects in unique way's and who's behavior is honest but not necessarily the norm, that's how I want to view the world...like an extra-terrestrial!
Since that cold rainy day doing battle with a brain locked sub, I've determinedly donned my "other dimension glasses" that permit me to look at the world with new perspective. The result has been a renewal of creative thinking when I was feeling hopeless of being original on a planet where I thought everything had been done, thought of, and created.
So the newly born alien won, with threats of non-payment, I now have outlets on my mantel, in the floor, in the closets, on a column, and four feet up on several walls.
