The Light Saber Club and Anti-Conformity

Yesterday I witnessed a heart-breaking scene. There were a dozen or so people in the middle of the University of California in Irvine campus engaged in what seemed to be a light saber duel. They were all paired off and fighting one another and doing so in deep sincerity. While to most people that might be a very sad sight (12 people old enough to be in college, and some probably older than I am, all playing around with light sticks and acting like jedis or swordmasters or the like), it didn't bother me much. What truly bothered me was the dozen or so Christian folk walking by them. They were trying to keep it down but they were obviously ridiculing this group of men and women engaged in intense combat.

Unfortunately, I was part of this group. And when I heard the first signs of ridicule, I walked faster and away from the group. It is strange that I didn't want to be mistaken to be part of the group that did not want to be mistaken to be part of the illuminous Light Saber Club. Frankly, I felt ashamed that the group I traveled in had the lack of decency and closed mindedness to make fun of a group of people who lived as they had wanted to. As far as I know, they didn't break any biblical laws and so the Light Saber Club seems good to me.

However, the worst part of it all was that as I was walking away, I was pretty much exactly as far from my main group as were the Light Saber Club. Meaning, whatever was in earshot range for me was in earshot range for the Light Saber Club. And I heard a lot of things pertaining to the Light Saber Club and I just wanted to run. In defense of my church, not everyone was partaking in the ridicule but still, I am ashamed I didn't stop it. I think I was too embarrassed by my fellow church members to do anything but run.

Now you might be wondering, Richard, are you in the Light Saber Club? Is that why you're getting so worked up on this subject? The answer is, for better or for worse, no.

I am getting worked up because a man should not have his lifestyle mocked by another. It is disrespectful in so many levels and my heart breaks for those whose lifestyles are ruined or under constant attack by people who just aren't able to accept their lifestyles. I absolutely abhor those narrow-minded sacks of dirt that don't accept lifestyles of different people.

This leads to the fact that people need to know how far culture has conformed them. Who says that a Light Saber Club cannot be cool? Society deems it too nerdy or whatever. It's all cultural conditioning and people seem to be completely fine with it no matter how awful it makes people. I admit that I am culturally conformed in some aspects. I just like skinnier women better than fat ones. That is my cross to bear. aha. But still, Light Saber Club can be awesome if we just shut out the cultural norms and look at them without bias.

Truthfully to say (props to Shingo), I have no feelings for it whatsoever. I do but not enough to make me pity them or highly exalt them. My philosophy, when I see ways of life that are new to me, is to just live and let live. They have found their happy place and now I should concentrate on finding my own. Incidentally my happy place can be found in my church, my school, and my home. No, it's not friends and family. It's God. I apologize to all my friends out there but you guys just don't compare to God. Sorry. And if people were to pity me because of my lifestyle, then I would just call them jerks and be sad. The Jedi Masters and I are no different. We just have different lifestyles. I'll react exactly the same as they do when people ridicule my lifestyle. I'll pretend that I've never heard it and try living on.