It’s been one of those weeks for the Insider. The heat kept the old guy inside all day on Monday. Feeling a bit guilty about being a hermit, Insider went outside first thing Tuesday morning (11 a.m.), only to turn around immediately after getting hit with a wall of hot and humid air. All the news stations tell you during heat waves to stay inside if you are elderly except for early in the morning and late in the evenings. Well, this week not even that advice was correct. According to the trusty thermometer perched outside the old guy’s kitchen window, the early morning temperature (11 a.m.) was 88 degrees. By 2 p.m., it had soared to 98 degrees. It inched up to 99 by 4 p.m. Around 6 p.m., it slipped to 95 and at 8 p.m. it read 91 degrees. At 10 p.m., it said 85 degrees, and that’s when Insider took another shot at going outside. This time he made it four steps before turning around and heading back inside to his 74-degree home. The news reporters might as well just advise the old-timers to stay indoors at all times during a heat wave. At least that way, there’s no guilt associated with it.
As a young timer, Insider was told a lot, most of which has been forgotten long ago. One thing he does remember being told was: "Insist on yourself, never imitate." Some guy named Emerson wrote it years ago and the old guy was told it often growing up at home and in the classroom (it’s that Catholic school upbringing). It has stuck with him ever since and it truly is a remarkable line full of all sorts of interpretations and applications in today’s society.
"Insist on yourself, never imitate."
It’s a motto young-timers should most certainly adopt, although most do not try to be different and instead try to fit into the crowd rather than stand out by being different. They act like everyone around them and most certainly wear everything they see around them including the baggy shorts and shirts, the skirts that are way too short, the jeans that are way too tight and, of course, the hats on backwards. They drive the same cars, eat the same trendy foods, drink their flavored lattes, listen to the same music, watch the same television shows and movies and basically mimic each other in every way imaginable. Those that steer away from the masses in either look or dress are chastised as being strange or weird when in all actuality they are the cool ones because they are insisting on themselves and not imitating. Do they dare to be different? Chart their own course? Emerson would be so disappointed.