Quote:
Originally Posted by JoeH
Maybe it's just me but I can't imagine getting rid of my van because folks are interested in it and have the nerve to ask some questions. Or gee whiz even have the gall to take a picture.
I agree the #vanlife thing is a bit nauseating.
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Well....it seems that there's at least two perspectives on this.
There's lame reasons to leave a pursuit....and there's legit (or at least understandable) reasons to leave a pursuit.
To wit:
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EXAMPLE SCENARIO A:
Hipster McBeardywitz has been dedicatedly down with The Flabberwockys for the last 4 years. (His favorite bearded indy band who plays in the Pearl District.) Owned all their EP's. Wore their shirts. Got himself more than a few dates with the ladies by claiming to be their number one fan.
THEN --
The Flabberwockys suddenly blow up. A random YouTube video of them (feeding pigeons while playing sitars and wearing Pope hats) goes viral. Suddenly everyone talks about the Flabberwockys. Social media lights up. Talk of a big record deal with Sub Pop comes true. Flabberwockys are on the radio and on Late Night TV shows.
SO, AS A RESULT:
Hipster McBeardywitz abruptly dumps all his Flabberwockys allegiance. Throws away all his Flabberwockys shirts, wipes their songs off all his media devices, stops talking about them, DONE....and then goes off in search of the next underground band that's an "undiscovered bit of awesome" so that he can maintain his identity as an edgy "ahead of the curve" cognoscenti of cool.
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EXAMPLE SCENARIO B:
Brandon McChill just plain loves to go out for rows on the lake in his grandfather's old handmade rowboat. He could certainly afford a new kayak or canoe....or jet-ski.....but for some reason he's immensely satisfied with the experience of rowing the old boat across the lake each day and listening to the sound of the water against the old boards.
Nobody ever paid him much mind as he rowed his old row-boat back and forth for years.....they were all far too interested in their motorboats/jet-ski's/etc (and in fact they all thought he looked quite silly in his "little dinghy" as he contentedly paddled along.....many jokes were made at his expense over the years, but of course he never heard any of them, as he was happily "in the zone".....rowing away and watching the lakeshore go by, slowly and peacefully.)
THEN....THE BIG THING HAPPENED:
Kanye West declared that he was suddenly a fan of old rowboats, and how nothing connected a man to his source like the simple act of rowing. People were puzzled at first. But then social media lit up with all sorts of live-streams of Kanye happily rowing across lakes, a look of smug calm on his face. Someone invented the hashtag #rowkanyerow and that led to #rowboatlife and then BOOM --- Outside magazine and XXL Magazine did a collaborative piece on the new "Rowboat movement".....and suddenly motorboats weren't cool....jet-ski's weren't cool....and the lakes were suddently FULL of social media selfie-posting rowboaters.
Poor Brandon McChill found that he could suddenly not go out for his relaxing rows very easily anymore --- the lakes were full of rowboaters who weren't even looking where they were going! All of them live-streaming/posting to instagram, hoping they were being seen/getting noticed. Boating accidents started happening almost three or four an hour. Brandon caught some lowlifes in the act of stealing his rowboat at least three or four times, and then eventually one of them succeeded. (It was then found a day later at the other end of the lake, a bunch of PBR cans strewn throughout it.)
And then there was the constant "Hey Bro, "hashtag row-row yo!!!" that he found being yelled his way constantly as he tried to row across the lake. The solace and relaxation he had once loved in the simple act of rowing was pretty well vaporized. Every time he took his boat out to go row, he was besieged by suddenly-enthused people who wanted to know "is that boat all original" or "is that a reclaimed barnwood rowboat?" or "did you build that in the style of Kanye's rowboat?"....it went on.....
At long last, he looked at the lake one day (by now full stem-to-stern with what looked like a demolition derby of colliding rowboats and selfie sticks) and he decided, at long last.....that maybe he wasn't going to go rowing today.
As he sat there contemplating this sad sudden realization that perhaps he was done with rowing......and his mind began to wrestle with the question of how he would now regularly go find refuge from the daily grind..... his eyes fell upon his grandfather's old pogo stick.
"Hmmmmm.........!" he said to himself.
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Just my humble take on this....
....but I would say that in Example B.....the reasons for backing away from a pursuit are both at least honorable (to oneself) and understandable.