Hearing a Different Drummer...

When I was younger (waaay younger), I thought I was pushing the envelope when I wore pointed black leather slip-on shoes with heel taps, white socks, and "pegged" pants (tapered and tight with slash pockets in front (horizontal). The shirt was a standard Oxford with a loop on the back that girls used to target. Gives the standards of the time, that was pretty far out of the norm. Today, I have a small gold hoop in a pierced ear.

The United Kingdom's Daily Mail online carried a story today that caught my eye in a big way! From the paper: "As obsessions go this has to be one of the weirdest known to man - someone who would voluntarily file his teeth, split his lip and undergo extensive facial surgery - to turn himself into a 'human tiger'. Dennis Avner, 50, is descended from American Indians, and has spent 'an uncalculated amount' of money on making himself look like a big cat, after a discussion with a Native chief who inspired him to 'follow the ways of the tiger'. Avner's body modification operations have included bifurcation (splitting) of his upper lip, surgical pointing of the ears, silicone cheek and forehead implants, tooth filing, tattoos, and facial piercing - to which whiskers can be attached. Avner, from Tonopah, Nevada, likes to go by his Indian name 'Stalking Cat'. 'I am Huron and following a very old tradition have transformed myself into a tiger,' he says on his website stalkingcat.com. The tiger aficionado - naturally - enjoys climbing trees and must eat meat 'every day, just as a tiger would.' This should be 'as close to raw as possible, or at the temperature that an animal would be if it had just been killed,' he told The Sun. But Cat can't live the tiger's life 24 hours a day - he has human needs too. These he meets by working in an office - 'the only difference is I look like a cat' - or by making personal TV appearances, which have included Larry King Live, VH1's 'Totally Obsessed' and Kerrang! His latest public appearance was at the new Ripley's Believe It Or Not! museum, which opened this week in London's Piccadilly Circus. "

Every generation pushes a bit more and more - black nail polish, pierced tongues and, uh, other parts, tattoos, etc. These people, usually teenagers, were once described as trying on one face after another until they find their own. One lesson to remember and take from this small offering is from something Henry David Thoreau wrote: "If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away." Here is a man who exemplifies the idea expressed in the quote. There is little I can add except, "March on, Stalking Cat. March on!"