Joiners Anonymous

I'm just not a "joiner". Never have been really, even in school.

I mean, I suppose it first started as my own little inner rebellion...a smaller part of the whole "question authority" thing. I didn't wanna be like everyone else and I didn't understand why that was so damned important to some. I couldn't understand why a cohort should...or could...be the boss of me.

Unless, of course, they signed my paycheck. heh

If everyone else was doin it, then I sure as shit didn't wanna do it. I'd do something else.

I am not a lemming, dammit!

Oh, over the years, I did try. I'd join this group or that organization. Some were more...formal-type things...some were much less formal. I joined a weight-loss group. For several years, I was part of an organizational committee that held a yearly to-do in my little town. I spent a year on a county fair board. Various and sundry classes. Local forums. Stuff like that.

What I discovered was this.

No matter how small...how innocuous...the organization seemed to be...no matter how altruistic the group was supposed to have been, there was always drama. Always a pissin contest over who was right and who was wrong. A fight over who held the power and who didn't...and if you didn't, then it was expected of you to kowtow to those that did. Always this feeling of cold fear that somebody in the organization was gonna get more than someone else. More power. More authority. More of...well...whatever. Anything. Clashes of personalities that turned normal, rational, middle-aged (and older) adults into screaming, tantrum-throwing five-year olds.

Nananana booboo!

And, ya know...it gets sooooo old. Soooo...useless. Life's just entirely too short for stupid shit like that.

So, most generally, after the first sign of drama, I'd high-tail it outa whatever piss-ant organization it was. But I'll admit...there were rare times I'd find myself gettin...sucked in. ..right smack-dab in the middle of it. I hated it when that happened. Hated myself for becoming like them.

So I quit altogether. Cold turkey. I quit bein a joiner.

The thing is, it still pulls at me sometimes. Even though I know that the Nananana Booboo behavior occurs in every, single organization. I know this. Still. There are those rare times...fleeting moments of weakness...that I feel like maybe...just maybe I'll join somethin again. I hafta fight that urge to join.

So, I think I'll form my own organization. Joiners Anonymous. I've even thought up a logo.

Joiners, untie! (Think about it a minute.)

Wanna join?