Shopper Blog: Something amiss in our topsy-turvy world

OPINION

Something amiss in our topsy-turvy world

Leslie Snow, Shopper News

On the surface, these stories are unrelated. They don’t belong together in one column. They aren’t connected in any way. But they both happened to me, and they both left me feeling as though something is amiss.

The first occurred last weekend when Ethan stopped by the house for a visit. I had just bought some pretty yellow flowers to plant in my new landscaping bed and Ethan was tagging along, casually talking about work while I carried the flowers down our flagstone path.

Progress was slow. Every few feet I would stop to pull weeds, balancing the flowers in one hand and plucking dandelions and yellow clover with the other. Ethan watched silently as I gripped unwelcome blossoms and gently pulled to capture the root ball.

“What’s wrong with those flowers?” he asked pointedly while he watched me struggle with a particularly stubborn dandelion.

“They’re weeds,” I told him, matter-of-factly.

He was quiet for a minute then he remarked, dubiously, “Let me get this straight, you’re pulling yellow flowers that grow freely and happily in your yard so that you can plant different, more expensive yellow flowers that you’ll have to water regularly and protect from the deer. Do I have that right?”

I stopped weeding and looked up at him. I felt a clever retort building inside me, but it never reached my lips. I just stared at my youngest son for a moment then replied, “Yes, something like that. It’s how gardening works.”

The second story started with a conversation I had with Jordan. We were talking in her kitchen after I dropped the grandkids off from school when I casually mentioned an article I’d read earlier in the day.

“My newsfeed told me this morning that it’s time to get rid of my skinny jeans. I like my skinny jeans,” I lamented. “I’ll miss them.”

“I know,” she replied. “Now we have to wear those stiff high-waisted jeans that have no stretch in them.”

“They’re so uncomfortable!” I said forcefully.

“They are!” she agreed. “I call them my ‘standing pants’ because they’re so stiff you can’t sit down when you’re wearing them. You can only stand.”

We both laughed. In the moment, it seemed funny.

But on the drive home I thought about the fashion police taking my comfortable jeans and replacing them with an abdominal corset that doesn’t allow for sitting. It made no sense. Then I heard Ethan’s words in my head asking why I was killing one yellow flower only to replace it with another. And it hit me. The world is a topsy-turvy place.

There are unseen forces that dictate human behavior. Consumer behavior. We are compelled by pictures of beautiful gardens and beautiful people to do impractical things.

We plant gardens we can’t sustain (or at least I can’t sustain them). We buy new clothes, uncomfortable clothes, to conform to some newly invented fashion norm.

And I’ll do my best to resist the pressure, at least for a little while. I’ll take a stand one day and refuse to plant things that aren’t native to East Tennessee.  I’ll reject new clothing trends and stick with the styles I know and love.

But before too long, I’ll go to some party or barbecue and notice my dated skinny jeans. I’ll look at the yellow weeds sprouting next to my yellow Kalanchoe, and I’ll pull them with a satisfying yank.

I’ll relent and conform even when I don’t want to. Because even though it’s a topsy-turvy world, it’s the world I live in.

Leslie Snow may be reached at snowcolumn@aol.com

Proposed high-rise would ruin riverfront and years of work by me and subsequent mayors

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Shopper News brings you the latest happenings in your community