fReDiGgLe’S bLoGgIzZlE

I’ve got to say there is nothing better than writing about oneself; especially if it is funny.  The essays that follow are of two things that have held a dear place in my life.  The subcultures they describe have thus helped shape who I am as a person, father, husband and all around gymnast.  After I wrote the first essay, I came to the conclusion that to some extent, everyone is a geek.  The question lays in what are they a geek for?  There is the golf geek who has tee time at 6:30 every Tuesday morning.  There is the coffee geek who can quote the entire menu of Starbucks in thirty caffeine filled seconds.  Don’t forget the celebrity geek who knows more about a particular celebrity than the celebrity herself knows.

Geeks are all around us.  In fact I would suffice it to say that everyone is a geek of some sort.  A geek could be solely defined as one who is impassioned about a particular thing.  That makes over six billion certified geeks inhabiting planet Earth at this very second.  Unfortunately there also exists a caste system within geekdom.  The level of geeky oddity is directly attributed to the social structure of civilization.  That is why only the lower social misfits (and by misfits I mean, “won’t fit anywhere else”) wear the label of geekhood.  It is thrust upon those who are proud to be labeled as such.  To be a geek is to not be “normal.”  Therein lays a ginormous can of worms that I refuse to open.  I would define, with many supporters that the golf geek, coffee geek and celebrity geek are far from my perception of normal.  But to them?  I am the outcast, the foreigner, the great unwashed.  Regardless, I find it is okay to be pigeonholed into that certain framework.  It’s who I am; who I’ll always be.  Just like them.

That being said, as I wrote the following two essays I couldn’t help but reinforce common stereotypes.  While often viewed negatively, stereotypes can be and are often beneficial.  Stereotypes help our minds to classify information that make it easier to recall later.  The problem is when these stereotypes are applied across the board.  In the case of the comic book geek, there exist those who fall one hundred percent along stereotypic lines but there are also many who do not.  Stereotypes are an even greater exaggeration of an already exaggerated caricature or rather an oversimplification.

If I were to claim that trees have green leaves would I be wrong?  No, because there exist trees that have green leaves; and yes, because there exist trees what have red or auburn leaves.  What I am doing is oversimplifying the fact that many trees have green leaves.  The major problem with stereotypes is that people often equate them along racial lines.  They take that oversimplified objective statement and subjectify it.  One reason many find stereotypes negative is the fact that they are afraid to admit that they may be true.  Black people love fried chicken.  White people can’t play basketball.  Chicanos have large families.  College graduates are smart.  Trees have green leaves.  These statements are not wholly true yet within them there lies truth.

What upsets most people is the fact that the people group stereotypes tend to be negative and reinforce an unfavorable behavior.  This is what they find objectionable; not the stereotype itself.  My point in the following two essays was to poke a little fun at two subcultures that I myself am a part of and tell of why they are important to me.  I hope that the message of the two essays is not lost in the stereotypes.  Who knows, as you read them this may be the furthest thing from your mind.  But I hope that they make you laugh and that they shed some light onto some otherwise “misfit” subcultures.