I’ll let you in on a little secret: Until last year, I never much cared for the country singer, Luke Bryan. Ok, so actually, his songs annoyed the crap out of me–so much so that I’d change the station if one came on. But then a couple of things happened. He became a judge on American Idol (which I love), and I realized he’s a pretty great person (yes, I can tell that from watching him on TV 🙂 ) Somewhere within that time frame, he also came out with this song.
I fell in love with it from the start. Yeah, I’m one of those idealistic people who totally buys his message: I, too, believe most people are good.
But when I was thinking about what I wanted to next write about on my blog (which is not Luke Bryan, believe it or not), this song popped into my mind. His lyrics include these lines:
“I believe you love who you love
Ain’t nothing you should ever be ashamed of. . .”
Which I think is totally true. But I’d like to change the “who” to “what” for the purposes of this blog post. I also believe you love WHAT you love-as in books, movies, music, hobbies, etc.–ain’t nothing you should ever be ashamed of. After all, we each have our own tastes, and we shouldn’t allow other people to make us feel lesser than for what they are.
I write this just a few days ahead of a trip that I happen to be VERY excited about. You see, next Monday, I leave for Forks, Washington. As in THE Forks, Washington. And if that means nothing to you, then you must not be a Twilight fan, which is perfectly fine. But I happen to be a very big Twilight fan, and I’m not ashamed to say it.
Of course, there was a time when I felt like I needed to read more respectable literature in order to be a real reader or writer. So I attempted a few classics.
And guess what? I did not care for any of them. The only one I managed to make it all the way through was Jane Eyre. Please don’t ask me what it’s about though, because I really don’t remember. ? More recently, I tried to listen to the audio version of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. I really wanted to like it, but it was so slow-moving, I could hardly stand it. Mission aborted.
But hey–I really enjoyed the movie version of Romeo and Juliet. That counts for something, right?
I just have to accept that I’m more of a Twilight girl than a Pride and Prejudice one. Does that mean I don’t appreciate more serious or literary novels? Of course not. I love all kinds of books, actually.
But on that same note, there are some VERY popular contemporary books which I didn’t care for at all. I hate to mention titles by the very off chance that the author might stumble upon this blog one day (Gosh knows I wouldn’t like that as an author), but my point is this: you don’t have to like what everyone else does. It’s perfectly okay not to. By the same token, it’s perfectly okay to love things others don’t.
And while we’re on the topic of unpopular opinions, I’d also like to mention that I adore Taylor Swift’s music and think Justin Bieber isn’t half-bad either. Whew! It feels good to get that off my chest.
I love what I love–ain’t nothing I should ever be ashamed of.
And neither should you.
Next time some high-brow person tries to make you feel dumb for loving Fifty Shades of Grey or a young adult book (even though you’re 50), tell them to go suck an egg. And while you’re at it, tell them to listen to Luke Bryan’s song. Maybe they’ll learn something from it.