Bad to the Bone, Part 1

A quilter's statement, perhaps designed by some sweet little granny, found here

Everyone seems to need to be bad.

It was my husband who first pointed it out to me in my dad's conversation style. He mentions prior girlfriends. He mentions his drinking days. He frequently references locking horns and doing end runs on those in authority during his mission doctor days. But in truth the need to be "bad to the bone" is everywhere. You most likely do it, too. Listen to yourself. People point out in the course of their conversations that they cross the line, that they push the borders, that they are rapscallions--in the most lovable of ways, of course.

"They call me a maverick," said a grizzled old mission doctor whom I met when I was seventeen. I still remember his pride in that word, maverick.  "I don't fit with the mission's expectations, so I went out on my own." He was now working in his office in a Thai three-story shophouse, having left accountability to his former church employers.

"We were the fearsome foursome," says another. "Oh, the mischief we got into, working at camp." The impression given is that they would still jump at the chance to get in league with others and push the boundaries.

"Yeah, I keep a bottle of wine in the pantry," says a someone who belongs to a teetotaling church, speaking in sotto voce with a wink and a smile.

"So the national park service wants me to pay $1500 for a photography permit now? Just watch me. Here's my latest photo from X national park, with a model in it," says an online friend. (Well, the national parks are going to find that rule to be difficult to enforce!)

"I know society thinks blah-blah-blah, but I do la-de-dah," someone else points out.

Look around you at the mall, at the post office, on bumper stickers, emblazoned on t-shirts, conveyed in art and music, proclaimed in the media, cited in stories at funerals. Over and over the message is given with a wink and pride, using a variety of phrases but always conveying the same message: "I operate outside the boundaries." "I am bad to the bone."

Bad. Outside the lines. Sneaky. Acting out some level of rebellion against whoever is perceived to be the authority.

In the years since my husband pointed out this strange little human proclivity, I have consciously listened for it, and noticed some commonalities. Sometimes the badness is overblown by the speaker. You chuckle inwardly, realizing that they are actually quite harmless. It's almost as humans are programmed to believe that their personal worth is evidenced by their individuality in doing something that breaks the rules. You aren't much if you don't strike out on your own, jump the fences, live free of authority in some manner small or large. We have a need to establish that we don't operate as society--or at least our microculture--expects.

Isn't that odd?

Don't you wonder what deeper human phenomenon these little comments reveal? The longer I've listened for them, the more they have seemed like pitiful little statements highlighting those times when we refuse to see the bigger picture, neglect the opportunities to live from a deeper principle, and indulge our own narcissistic tendencies.

[continued in Part 2]