The Compartmentalization Conundrum, Pt. 1: Threading the Needle of Your Expectations

This is a three parter!  :-o

Part One:  Threading the Needle of Your Expectations
Part Two:  Independent Thought
Part Three:  Shedding the Muzzle

So, you have known me in my professional hat for fifteen years and have come to think you KNOW me and any change in my priorities and focus is *gasp* weird and uncomfortable for you?  Imagine how your scrunched up face and cocked-to-one-side head-with-side-long glance look to me?  You look ridiculous.  Close your mouth and move forward.  I'm not the sum total of what you think I should be:

We need to manage expectations for a bit....

Yes, I enjoyed greatly teaching the ancient choral work that is Gregorian Chant and polyphony to semi-willing teenagers for the past fifteen years.  Yes, I think that camp songs, felt banners, and emotion-based liturgies are ridiculous and silly in the Church that created the greatest works of art known to man for thousands of years.  Yes, I think if you are going to believe in anything at all, you should believe in something ancient and mysterious and difficult to get your mind around, and do EVERYTHING in your power to respect the traditions and beliefs that come with that---"When in Rome,"  and all.

However, I have other interests, too.   Shocking, right?

What is this need to compartmentalize the people around us that so plagues our society?  It's always been there---this tribal need to identify like-minded people who won't challenge us or do worse things to us, and then cling to them like rats on a raft.  However, you should bear in mind, without those strange non-conformist rats who are willing to put up with the consequences of questioning the wisdom of the exclusive community of life on the rat raft, we'd never find the island. 

I can be a mantilla-wearing, Propers chanting, rabid rad-trad Catholic AND I can smile at and participate in sci-fi cosplay and admire the artistry that goes into the costumes and the devotion to imagination and joy which people exude who love what they do for fun, too, without violating any fundamental rules of social life.

However, I've noticed recently that you really can't...

Tomorrow we will talk about my Dad and the vagaries of him being Harbor Master for a few years and then abandoning that for making pipe organs and calliope's, and how you can't seem to retain your friends when you shift groups of people.  I want to talk about HOW in the future we might interact with those of us who do NOT fit the expectations of the community we have become known in, and what to do when we wander off and find something new.

Do you know what the common denominator is between these two pictures?  The photographer who passionately, deeply, enthusiastically enjoyed each one as a profound life experience where there was hard work and sacrifice involved just to participate.

ps---I've been a cosplayer for decades.  You just thought I was doing Dinner Theatres for fund raising.  What if I was doing them because they were fun?!?  :P  A pox on expectations.