Rob wanted to rebel a little but only a very little because he liked
living with us and working with my dad and kissing my dad's butt
whenever he could. He wanted to show he was no lock step conformist
so the way he did that was to go to church. I know you are thinking
not very rebellions to go to church every week as was expected from
all of the occupants of our home but here was the coup – he wore
sandals. Embrace the chaos, because he was coming at you all
non-conformist all Sunday long right there in your face if your face
happened to be right near the ground. Not many people's faces were
right near the ground so he was not having the boat rocking effect
that he was hoping for. Ideally, I think he wanted people to be a
little shocked and a little disturbed and in response he wanted to
play it all cool like he didn't mind ruffling a feather or ten. No
feathers were ruffled and that made him disappointed being judged and
looked down on by the pious is the payoff to most rebellion. When you
are left there with inappropriately clad feet and no indignation the
only logical choice is to raise the stakes. He upped the ante by
investing heavily in ridiculously colored pants, specifically some
gawdoffle purple rayon monstrosities that he was banking on to draw
the appropriate attention to his devil-may-care badassery. Most
people just made funny remarks about how ridiculous they looked. One
particularly funny member-joker made a
do-not-look-directly-into-the-pants joke that killed. Being judged
and being mocked are two vastly different things a nice judging can
generate some much needed validation and vindication but being teased
is just humiliating. Well, it is to most normal people, Rob
misinterpreted it as him blowing there little parochial minds and
wore that as a misguided badge of honor for the rest of the time he
lived with us.
