Contrarian (63/100)

I like the word 'contrarian'. I like that it sounds old-fashioned and its hard sound fits its meaning. I like that it's a word not many people use nowadays. Also, I like its definition and am pleased when I get to do something that proves I am one. For example, tonight I finished reading a book that a friend had leant to me. It was good enough – moving in places, humourous or ironic at times, made me think about the state of the world and other cultures – but it wasn't brilliant. It didn't have a particularly astonishing ending. Therefore, when I read the last part of the blurb on the back, which said something like, 'once you finish this, do not tell others what it is about,' I felt my hackles rise. I stared at the book for a moment, then thought, 'you can't tell me what to do; I will tell others if I want to.'

This got me thinking about another form of impersonal command: chain letters, and more recently chain emails and posts. 'You must send this to five people before the end of the week or...' I admit in my superstitious years while at school, I would sometimes pass the letters on (in the days before email and Facebook). Now, however, I relish the idea of stopping the chain, not falling for the silliness, and not letting an inanimate object tell me what to do. So I say, embrace your contrarian nature once in a while.