Anyway, I say all that to make a comment about my new fashion statement.
I've started wearing overalls.
I can't say why, exactly, I've become attracted to overalls. And truth be told, I really don't see what the big deal is. People still wear overalls, right? But it seems that this particular fashion choice strikes the people in my life as bizarre, incongruous, and, well, eccentric. All my friends are teasing me.
I guess it's because overalls make people think of rural folk and farmers. People with PhDs and Chair persons of academic departments at universities don't tend to wear overalls.
And I think that's part of the reason why I've become attracted to overalls. When I'm wearing overalls I don't look like Dr. Richard Beck, author of two books, Professor and Chair of the Psychology Department at ACU. I like overalls because I don't look like that at all.
That's something I've discovered about overalls, though that's not what got me wearing them. I simply wanted to wear them. I saw some, they felt welcoming to me, so I bought them and started wearing them. I'm sort of simple in that way. I think that's what makes me a non-conformist. I don't ponder what others think about overalls or if they suit my image. I don't think about those things at all. I just do what I want to do. Social perceptions be damned. I live most of my life this way.
A funny story in this regard:
A few weeks ago I was preaching at Freedom. As I've written about before, Freedom has a lot of poor and low income members. Anyway, I was wearing overalls this particular night when I was preaching. The following Sunday one of our elders ran into me and said, "I was thinking about you today." "Oh yeah," I said, "what about?" "Well," he responded, "I was thinking about how nice it is that you intentionally dress like a low income person when you preach at Freedom in order to make them feel comfortable." I smile and nod and say, "Yeah."
But inside I'm thinking, "I'm not doing this on purpose. I'm not trying to look like a poor person to make them feel comfortable."
As strange as it may seem, I just wanted to wear overalls.
