Different

I have to be careful how I write this. I'm not sure I want to influence anyone reading this, because then I really wouldn't be different anymore.

My wife and I have found that we are different. The way we live, the things we embrace...are all pretty different from most of our friends and neighbors. I don't think this was even intentional, but somewhere along the way we decided to stop getting cable TV. Then we started living by a strict budget so that we could get out of debt. (We even go so far as to take a calculator to the grocery store, just to make sure we don't overspend.) Then we chose to cut up our credit cards. We have cell phones, but we don't have a monthly plan with Verizon or AT&T...we use Tracfone, and we only turn our phones on if we absolutely have to. We rent our videos from the local library. We don't take lavish vacations. A fun date night might simply be a quiet dinner and a nice walk around the neighborhood. We like shopping at Goodwill and Half-Priced Books. Then we decided to put our house up for sale, in order to move so that I can go to seminary full time. And I'm not saying any of this to brag. In fact, when you find you are living differently, you need to kind of need to be quiet, because you're going to sound like a jerk if you don't.

Really, I don't know why I'm writing this. Mainly just to ponder why we, as a society, choose to follow the crowd or to stand and be different. Everyone around us seems to be running a hundred miles an hour, and—though we're plenty busy, too—we seem to prefer a slower, less-chaotic pace of life. News and media carry a lot of influence. If you don't have the latest phone...or if you don't know who the final five American Idol contestants are...or if you don't know exactly what storm caused damage in the south...then you must be out-of-touch. Really?

I say all this very humbly, because it's hard to live differently. It's hard to turn off the TV and pick up a book. It's hard to pack your lunch everyday instead of eating out. It's hard to not follow, but to make small choices that seem to go against the grain of culture. Do you ever choose to "not follow"? If so, what everyday things do you do differently?