Friday, June 26, 2015

Living Life As... Myself

There is a new Mazda ad on TV where a young guy gets a new car, and then we watch him get different Mazdas as the ad goes along. He takes one to college. He drives one away from his wedding. He drives his kids around in one.

Then, at the end, he gets a new car and the voiceover says that he should celebrate feeling a little more like himself.

The ad bothers me every time I see it. I don't know if it did the very first time. I probably thought it was kind of sweet, you know?

But then I started to think about that final line and realized that this guy has apparently lived his whole life not being himself. According to the ad, he was himself when he was young, single, and owned a convertible. Then, after that, he had to become someone else to get married and have kids. Only getting into a new car - alone - and driving away allowed him to feel like himself.

And, yeah, that makes me sad. For him.

It's kind of like the people who are absolute hell to work with for 8 hours every day, but then you get told that they're "totally different - really fun" outside of work. That means that for at least 1/3 of their lives they're... someone else? What is the point in that?

On this Friday of Pride Week in Minneapolis - and on the day that the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage is the law of the land - I would have to say that I spend pretty much my whole life being me.

That's how I was raised. I was raised to be myself and to be happy with that. Okay. Yes. I'm also a Gemini, which means that there may or may not be multiple sides of me that not everyone knows, but they are all very much me. I don't need to drive away from my daily life in a new car to find out who I am.

And as much as I would love a new car, I'm perfectly happy with the everyday me.



1 comment:

irishred said...

SO pretty much love you Robert and wouldn't want you any way but the way you are.