Every now and then lists of rules pop up on the blogosphere, sort of like mushrooms after a rain. This was my week to run across one too many. And they were all lists of rules for getting along with people like me — that is, with categories I fit into.
They all went a little like this:
“Don’t do this when you speak to me.
Don’t believe that about people like me.
People like me require these things from those who want to be our friends.”
I know all these lists were meant kindly, as guidance for the clueless and support for the afflicted. People were writing comments in droves, all along the lines of ‘thank you for saying this,’ ‘I thought I was the only one,’ etc.
But as I read demand after demand and insight after insight about the needs of people like myself, I felt more and more high-maintenance. By the end, I did not even want to know myself; it would obviously require me to read a lot of psychology textbooks beforehand. So in the interests of personal harmony, I have decided to resign from all the categories for which these lists were written, and create a list of rules for getting along with me that I can live up to.
Here’s the rule for getting along with me: give it a try. We’re both grown-ups. If it doesn’t work, we’ll find other things to do with our lives.
