Lemming the Good Life

My friend Bezzie recently wrote on her feelings about bandwagons. (She’s against them.) I used to have that sort of clear-cut opinion on them, too. In fact, I had the same one. That would kind of put us on the same anti-bandwagon bandwagon, wouldn’t it? The ironic thing about being anti-bandwagon is that there are a lot of other people who feel the same way. I think that when you base your behavior on what other people are doing or not doing – even if it’s to do the opposite – you’re moving with the herd. Even if your herd is the anti-herd, composed entirely of black sheep. Then the black sheep isn’t unusual, is it? It’s surrounded by other black sheep.
Not (just to clarify) that I think Bezzie is an anti-herd sheep. I haven’t noticed flocks of other knitters making plastic bag raincoats or skirts out of business cards or knitting their own action figures. But. Given the topic of her musing and my own previous anti-herd sheepiness it’s almost embarassing to announce that I got my Ravelry invite last night.
Of course, my new approach to things is not to judge something new on what others think of it, but on my own perception of its merits. Sometimes this means doing something that a lot of other people are doing, other times it means doing something no one else is. I think that’s the healthy variance known as ‘personality.’ I wasn’t aware of the hype surrounding Ravelry until recently (I think it started as more of a knitting community thing). I read about it on Kim’s Crochetme blog and it sounded cool. Do I get points for doing the same thing as everybody else for a different reason? Ah, well. If you’re already in Ravelry, too, you can be my friend.