The other day I was hanging out with a couple of friends. It was pouring rain and we were stuck indoors, lounging about on couches, flipping through magazines and drinking hot tea. Occasionally, we'd comment on what we were reading and sometimes this would spark a conversation, like this one:
"Gah. It looks like smoked paprika has become super trendy. Now what I am I going to do?"
"Don't do anything."
"But I love smoked paprika! I don't want to stop using it."
"Exactly."
"But I'm not a hipster!"
"But you might as well be."
"That makes no sense."
"Rejecting something just because its trendy is no different liking something just because it's trendy. You are still giving the power to the hipsters to define what you like and don't like.
"Oh."
"Just like what you like and ignore the rest."
"But I don't want to be like everyone else! I want to be unique!"
"Good luck."
Just like what you like and ignore the rest. While this simple advice is true, it can be difficult to follow. In this age of hyper-information, ubiquitous advertising, and instant commentary, separating out what we really like from all the noise can be confusing.
My solution is to protect myself from the onslaught and avoid as much mass media as possible. I'm quite susceptible to other people's opinions so I seldom read reviews of books, movies or restaurants beforehand. I like having a clean experience, unmediated by someone else's words rattling around in my head. I do read reviews eventually, but only after I've had a chance to absorb my own experience first.
Another challenge is when what you like catches on in the zeitgeist and it starts showing up all over the place, like my friend and her smoked paprika. Suddenly you are sharing your passion with millions of people and it feels like the uniqueness and intimacy is gone. Your exposure gets over saturated and before you know it, Taco Bell is offering Artisanal Tacos with Smoked Paprika Tofu and you're ready to pull your hair out. Eventually, a choice must be made. Will you still continue to like it, or will you abandon it to the masses and move on?
Some things do endure trendiness and continue to be a part of our daily lives long after the spotlight is gone. The food world is full of such examples. Pesto, for instance, has survived. Goat cheese, too, and roast chicken, good crusty bread, chocolate pudding, and all types of pie. It even looks like fondue may have some staying power. If something is truly delicious, it will carry on. Maybe it's a little battered and worn out but it can also emerge improved after all that attention. Sometimes it's learned a thing or two in the spotlight.
So just go ahead and like what you like or even more importantly, love what you love. (From the poet Mary Oliver: "You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.") This can be surprisingly difficult to figure out but with courage and a certain kind of inner steadiness, it is possible to know what you love and to love it, too. Truth is, it's impossible to do anything else.
Related: Weekend Meditation: It Doesn't Always Have to be Fabulous
(Image: Dana Velden)
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It is funny how quickly we who are so insistent on being powerful, give up our power at the drop of a hat. Thank you for the reminder.
Wow, I can't believe someone would stop using a spice because too many other people like it.
Wait, is this an April Fool's thing?
The best thing I've ever done for myself, as a cook or a baker, is to choose my favorites to make - discard the rest - and then give myself up to the joy of experimentation. Why waste the energy trying myriad recipes when I can perfect one and then vary the flavors to suit? My greatest hope is that soon I'll completely return to a way of cooking exemplified by the elders in my family. Those I've loved & lost but with whom I loved to cook & bake - happy memories.
Hi Ms Melly: No, this is not an April Fools post. There are two points here. The first addresses the fact that some people will avoid something just because it's trendy. My response to that is that avoiding something just because it's trendy is basically the same thing as liking something just because it's trendy. It's still giving someone else the power to dictate what you like and don't like. The second point is that when a favorite thing becomes trendy, it can get overused and we stop using it because we grow weary of it.
gorgeous image Dana! just gorgeous.
I was a lot like your friend when I was in high school. I think I went out of my way to be different because I wasn´t sure who I was and I thought the things I liked defined me. I liked discovering bands no one had ever heard of, making my friends go see independent/foreign films with me, etc. Over time, as I grew up, I stopped caring. I love the Beatles (who doesn´t?), I read blogs that have millions of followers, I shop at the GAP and Anthropologie. In short, I like what I like. And what you think and what you do defines you more than things you buy.
"let the soft animal of your body love what it loves"
What a wonderful line!!
I have to say this all gets easier as you get older. At my age, I don't care what's trendy and what's not. I've been ahead of and behind trends all my life.
Love it! (the awesome image and the words of wisdom)
QUOTE: I have to say this all gets easier as you get older. At my age, I don't care what's trendy and what's not. I've been ahead of and behind trends all my life.
@ BOOKJUNKY: Your comment tickled my funny-bone. In the early years, a [then aquaintence now] friend noticed a few of my *repurposed* items. She commented on my (ahem) 'creativity', however, I was later gifted with the *real thing* on more than one occasion. I appreciated her thoughtfulness and attention to detail. Fast forward...
Years later this aquaintance cum friend confessed she felt sorry for me back then because she thought I couldn't afford to purchase what I needed. Ok....so she was right on that account (chuckle) BUT what she failed to realize was that I liked my repurposed items better than the real thing. These days, she often calls to say "I found [some unique item] at the thrift store!" How can I repurpuse it? And we laugh together. You should see her home today....turns out, she is MUCH more creative than I could have ever imagined. I can spend hours there just soaking it all in :)
Point being, I like what I like, whether it's trendy or not. Others' opinions and/or trends have no effect my personal taste. If you don't like the way I've designed my home, that's okay with me. I just hope you like YOURS. If it doesn't relfect your personality, you will never feel comfortable enough to truly relax there. And that's what it's all about...home IS where the heart is. I feel bad for those who are led by trends....they don't know what they're missin.
Years
*oops* disregard that last word (Years). An EDIT function would be wonderful here :/
That really made me laugh. Tell your friend she is stupid and not liking something because it became trendy is exactly what a hipster would do. Because hipsters don't want to follow the trend, they want to be there before the trend and move on as soon as it catches on. So yes, your friend is a hipster, but not because she likes smoked paprika, but because she is so elitist that she thinks she can't like things other ordinary people know and like.
Dana, spot on.
The hipster conversation is a VERY popular one chez nous, mostly because we are hipsters-in-denial. But I love your wise, wise words - I shall like what I like, and that is that.
This seems a peculiarly American/British phenomenon - like the irritating term 'foodie'. In most other cultures, it's the norm to be interested in what you eat, to want to eat well, and to 'like what you like', whether you are wealthy, poor, trendy or otherwise.
Really, now. Dana's friend was being sarcastic. Let's not all bash her for being humorous. Loosen up, people.
I was so struck by that beautiful line I looked up that Mary Oliver poem immediately - so beautiful! I needed to read that poem today.
But the good thing about liking something that becomes trendy, or liking it after it's trendy, is that it's readily available!
Im still wondering why the infatuation with smoked paprika? I've never even used it except to add a little color to food. What am I missing?
Indigo's right--when an ingredient is trendy, it means that I actually might be able to get it where I live, despite having no Trader Joe's or Whole Foods here. I found smoked paprika in the grocery store here recently and snapped it up (still have never seen ramps or fiddleheads here, though).
evary, you might be thinking of the regular paprika, the stuff that my mom always used to sprinkle on top of potato salad. The smoked paprika has the same flavor, but also a nice smokiness; try it in something like chili and you'll see what I mean. I'm having fun experimenting with it.
Awwww, man, I loved smoked paprika before it was trendy. At least before I knew it was trendy, which was when I read this article. I used to be able to buy it in a little store in town, and when that store went out of business I pestered the grocery store till they carried it. (I feel like I'm talking about a rare indie import from a heretofore unkown british band and a little local record store). Seriously, though, I love it because it tastes mother-flippin delicious, and because I'm a vegetarian and it imparts a smoky, bacon-y flavor to dishes.
Look what an ingredient search for smoked paprika yields on my blog...Hundreds of recipes. I don't think I could stop using it!
It makes me sad that it's trendy now, inexplicably. I wish I didn't know that fact!
Just like what you like. Don't worry about the trendiness. I find the hipsters annoying, but, on the other hand, a lot of what they like right now I do as well (good coffee, smoked paprika, converse sneakers). I didn't buy a straw fedora-style hat to keep cool on the hottest day of the year last year because I didn't want the hipsters to win. But you know what? So what? It was a nice looking hat that would have kept me cool. I forgot to embrace my geek and just like what I like without reservation and stop worrying about what others think.
STH, try an Asian market, if you have one, for fiddlehead ferns. Or, do what my in-laws do---harvest them yourself--they grow in cooler climates in forested areas.
First world problem!
I liked smoked paprika before it was cool.
Funny, I think Mary Oliver is the smoked paprika of poets -- oh well, like what you like, right?
I thought that conversation about smoked paprika, of all things, was a gentle prod to remind us how silly we are to follow or even take note of so-called trends. Silly old me, it's genuine, not an analogy or whatever (hello language purists). People do take note of trends in food. Like I care. So why care with clothes, furnishings, it's all so futile, and ultimately, SILLY. Especially with food. What a perfect way to highlight the nonsense of THE TREND. Come on.
P.S. The word trendy is so 80's that using the word trend is still awkward for me. Oh, when will I grow?