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I am a clichè.
With my gallery walls and my trips to the farmer's market.
With my kids' names and my television habits.
With an incredibly unsurprising vinyl collection.
I have always been a clichè.
In college, I wore patchwork and had a nose ring. I listened to Phish and flirted with Buddhism. I dabbled in political activism and stopped eating meat.
Add ten years to the equation and you have whatever I am now.
I like all the things that people like me are supposed to like: old flags and cameras, Bob Dylan and Wes Anderson, coconut oil for everything. Now I dabble in minimalism and try to avoid gluten.
Sometimes I feel bad about it. I feel so unoriginal and expected. "Of course Rachel would like that..."
But then other times I remember that everyone is a cliche. Everyone is a type. And I happen to I like the type that I am. To hell with it.
I like my gallery wall and my deer antlers.
Bring on the fancy cocktails and artisinal cheese served on a rustic, farmhouse table. I'm hungry.
So well put! ;)
ReplyDeleteHey, if we have to be a type then it might as well be a type that you enjoy! Fuck yeah artisanal cheese and gallery walls! Right up my alley ;)
ReplyDeleteI don't understand people who don't love cheese.
DeleteSo, yes. I think about this too, lately...... Succulents and cacti, macramé plant hangers, ikat rugs, woven baskets, vintage couches, twinkle lights in the house, and of course the ol' American flag.... Everyone online seems to live in this same style. Yet no one (not one) person I know in real life has a home anywhere close to it. It's very much like entering a hotel lobby or a Kirkland's store when I go somewhere else.
ReplyDeleteI guess I'm with you, I'll take cliché over the alternative...... Ironically, I just redid an old vintage queen chair today. I reupholstered it in another cliche' you forgot to add. The ever present Mexican blanket! Oh boy, who is the internet clone now? ;)
Well, I would really like to see how that chair turned out.
DeleteAlso, the internet is huge. There have got to me all sorts of other styles out there, right? And we just happen to be drawn to the one that matches our preferences??
Here's that chair :) http://boobobby.blogspot.com/2014/06/queen-chair-makeover.html?m=1
DeleteOh goodness. My husband logs into my phone a lot. It looks weird to see some of the feminine comments I've sent out all over the internet under Jerome's name ;)
DeleteThe chair is awesome. The best cliche EVER.
DeleteI'm right there with you- with my vintage camera collection, quirky movie/music posters (one is Bob Dylan of course), air plants (I can actually keep these alive!) and burgeoning glass bottle and skull collections. I recently paid money for an ostrich toe and it has been one of the most satisfying purchases I have ever made. I'm sure some antlers will find their way into my home soon. I love all my clichéd loves.
ReplyDeleteHaha, wow that is on old blogspot name from years ago. This is Jess Benson, by the way.
DeleteI definitely had to image search ostrich toes. I am so glad people are spending hard earned dollars on them. I love all my cliched treasures too.
DeleteLet's try to run into each other soon, Jess.
That would be great!
Deletehaha! I love this...i love that you call it out, or call yourself out, all of us really! it hadn't really occurred to me in such a way, although the things you describe are totally what i think of as the LA hipster vibe. i have this book called the History of Hip. it's pretty fascinating. The nature of hip (or hipster) is to be in complete rebellion, to NOT appeal to the masses, and so ironically as soon as something becomes hip it is no longer hip. it is bourgeois. or something like that. i have liked prairie dresses, calico, patchwork, peacock feathers, etc for about twenty years now, an aesthetic that goes in and out of fashion, and i'm comfortable with that. i say love what you love and bedamned what anyone thinks about it! i would have loved to see you in college. i heard sarah mclachlan has a new album out, or is it natalie merchant? so i am all set to lollygag in lilithfair land awhile.
ReplyDeleteI must have missed this when I was camping! I love it and I love these responses. Honestly, I have so much to say about this, both sides of it, what you said and what Heather said above, there's another type too you, see, the type that fiercely wants to do anything but the cliche, yet often ends up right there…that'd be me ;) Thank you for this awesome food for thought. Off to eat some artisanal cheese, drink locally roasted organic coffee and mend vintage clothing and indigo dye-hhaha!
ReplyDeleteYour post about Portland started to get my mind thinking about the idea, how sometimes we're embarrassed of the ways we end up becoming certain cliches. It's an idea I spend too much time pondering. Identity is a powerful thing.
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