Conventional Wisdom not so Wise

If something comes up in your life that requires you to endure air travel, please be forewarned that wearing cute sandals can lead to a sanitary hazard- walking barefoot on dirty airport carpets through security checkpoints.

Since this pleasantry is followed by two to four hours of breathing stale, recycled air, I see no reason why one should not indulge themselves in a few good magazines and a bag of m&m’s.

My magazines of choice this past weekend were “O Magazine” and “Real Simple,” and while my choices may suggest otherwise, I am indeed 22 years old.

Among other eye-catching articles, I was particularly moved by a personality assessment quiz in O Magazine. According to it, my personality type thankfully does not fall under the categories of “abandonment,” “emotional deprivation” or “unrelenting standards.” Rather, I fall undeniably into the category of “entitled.”

This means, in the words of some really smart psychologists, that I “hate to be constrained or kept from doing what I want,” paired beautifully with “I can’t tolerate other people telling me what to do,” topped off with (my personal favorite) “I feel that I shouldn’t have to follow the normal rules and conventions other people do.”

Hey, I’m not arguing.

In fact, I’ll take it a step further and say that normal rules and conventions usually are just downright wrong.

Let’s take everyone’s favorite phrase for example: “Everything happens for a reason.” This one just bugs me. Now before you say, “Hey, I love that phrase! I live by that phrase. Why I oughtta…” just hear me out.

It’s not that I think the concept is necessarily flawed, it’s that I think you’re selling yourself short. For example, let’s say you were fired from your job and spent a few weeks wallowing in a rather intense bout of self-pity. Then, you went out to get a new job that you now love, causing you to say, “See? Everything happens for a reason. If I hadn’t gotten fired from that job, then I wouldn’t have this job that I now love!”

I say, good for you! I think you made the best of that situation, and adapted to your new situation quite well. And I applaud you for turning that obstacle into something that works for you. So let’s not give all the credit to some mysterious, unknown force.

Take note that credit is due to the higher power you liken yourself to. But let’s not get carried away.

What people really mean when they say “Everything happens for a reason” is “Everything turns out alright in the end (thanks to a positive attitude and an open mind.)” Now that's a piece of conventional wisdom I can sit with.

And if you still remain loyal to the conventional wisdom in question, please remember what O Magazine confirmed: I am entitled to my opinion.