Affinity

Currently Listening To :: Play That Funky Music :: Wild Cherry

Here’s a pop quiz. A) Put your hands up if you’ve heard of a book called The Da Vinci Code. Now, B) put both hands up if you’re reading or have read The Da Vinci Code, or, for that matter, any book by author Dan Brown (BUT, only if you read The Da Vinci Code first). While this blog will take me longer to write with one hand in the air, the very fact that you’re reading this means that I haven’t done one of A) or B). Since I’m writing about a book called The Da Vinci Code, I’ll give you 3 seconds. Got it? Okay, good.

You can put them down again.

Yes, I’ll admit it. I haven’t read the worldwide, best-selling, Amazon.com chart-topping book, The Da Vinci Code. This may seem strange, considering I’m such a “book person”. But I’ve heard a lot about it. I’ve seen a lot of people reading it. Hell, my cousins were even contemplating a lunch just to discuss the book and its meanings.

Now before any Dan Brown disciple puts their collection in a Borders bag and beats me down with it like a sack of bricks, let me iterate this isn’t a broadside on your book selection. For all we know, I might even like The Da Vinci Code. But chances are, I’ll never give it a chance. Ironic coming from someone whose job it is to sell products by the tonne, but it’s the hype.

Hype anything enough, make it popular enough, and chances are I’ll ignore it until the hype is a memory. Call it a knee-jerk reaction, but I’ve often made it a point to be one step ahead or at least three steps behind what’s in. This explains behaviour like my instant rejection at any hint of the word metrosexual and my love for Low-End Theory Era (and Kanye West) hip-hop. I remember a time when people laughed when I wore three-quarter pants. They’re all eating their regular length shorts right now.

I can give countless instances of styles, books, and music that I’ve initially liked but ignored purely based on the fact that someone recommended it to me, not to mention it popping up everywhere like Nokia 5110s in the mid-1990s. Call me a cultural snob, but jumping on the bandwagon irks me.

Maybe I’m that kid who played it too safe, did all the right things, and fitted in seamlessly during school. I flew under the radar. And while I haven’t decided to start braiding my hair, throwing out all my striped shirts and wearing clothing made from hemp, or worse, from The Tree of Life, I’m definitely not averse to the thought of using moisturiser, burning incense sticks to calm my mood and listening to Prince.

But hype or not, if it feels right, I'm going to do it. Reaching the advanced age that I find myself in, individuality (or the pretense of said trait) is quite high up in my hierarchy of needs. Finding an affinity with people, trends, styles, sounds and visuals is something akin to a flash of light that reveals a hidden treasure, another section of the patchwork quilt that makes me, well, me.

We're not done here.