baka…. I busted up my shoulder today. Stupid shoulder.

Break the conventions. Keep the commandments.

-G.K. Chesterton

When I was in high school, I hung out with very…. conventional
people. That is a terrible word choice as in most senses of the word
it is completely false. I mean conventional as Chesterton meant it
above. Not neccessarily normal, but always in line with what was expected of
them.

From my flawed perspective, it seemed that everyone was either
like that or wasting their life away in obvious ways…. Drugs,
stealing…. People were either in the behaving properly crowd, the
ones who would be shocked to see someone drinking even if they were of
age, or they were in the worthless punks crowd.

I hated it, but I saw that I had to…. be conventional.

Now that I’m back in town, I see something that is actually quite
encouraging. I’ve grown a lot, found out that the Singapore drinking
age is 18 (so some of those people weren’t actually illegal),
and realized that there are some very respectable people who don’t
have a problem with reasonable alcohol consumption and things like
disagreeing with Martin Luther.

I think I knew it on some level all along, but I found out there actually were
people at ICS who were in neither
category. I found people who could live on the edge, not afraid of
controversy, and still be reasonable, fun beings.

It’s really kind of relieving to me. I hated being conventional, and
on the inside I never felt at peace just complying with
everything. (That can be blamed on my previous
hyper-authoritarian high school, but that’s another blog entry completely.)
Now I realize like Nell that blind acceptance is just as foolish—just
as blind—as unthinking rejection.

‘Break the conventions, keep the commandments,’ said
Chesterton. He’s definitely on to something there. The thing is, you
don’t have to break the conventions, as much as it bothers me to admit
it. (Blast, I love Chesterton) All you have to do is see them for what they really are:
conventions. In this case, your own actions are less important than
your outlook. The perception of a distinction between what is situationally inappropriate
and what is actually wrong makes all the difference, not whether you
actually do break the expectations.

In closing, another Chesterton classic:

‘We can thank God for beer and burgundy by not drinking too much of
them.’

-G.K. Chesterton

Thank you, it’s been a lovely evening.