I think that is it.

[straightfairy]

Pythos,

Hope it all sorts out OK.

[Jack Williams]

What's this about "old hippies"? This one just moved on from sarongs to skirts!

[Jack Williams]

Pythos, you're needed. Please persevere.
Jack.

[Pythos]

There is a characteristic of my pop I inherited, and happily so. I have integrity. I shall persevere. I know there are times I seem completely smashed, and I am believe me. But I get back up. I am still plugging along. I made it one day in khakis, and realized...ugh, I dislike that look soo much, especially on me. My GG also found the look not me so to say, and demanded I not do that again. LOL

The next day I wore my beloved leggings, after sorting things out with mom, it just felt right.

[skirtedMarine]

Pythos,
The Teen Years were hard for most of us,(Identity, Sexuality, Horhmones, Fitting in, Girls, (or Whatever) And I am Thankfull I had a Father Who was a stand up Guy as an Example, In Our Twenties Most of us (Myself included) were still tripping on our swards to some extent,(Or M-16s) You might even hear some of us in our advanced age say ; Jees, if I knew then what I know now" Most of us would like to go back in time and slap some darned sence into ourselves about how self centered and self serving we were. I cant blow any smoke up your skirt about Your particularfashion sence because You're different, but I'm not going to judge You either, all I can say with Brotherly care is that life seems to be a humiliating experience, and I hope you hang in with the rest of us because things do get better, and alot of things get less important.

[Jack Williams]

Hang in Pythos, I enjoy your flickr photos and really like Goth. Goes also with steampunk.

[crfriend]

You might even hear some of us in our advanced age say ; Jees, if I knew then what I know now" Most of us would like to go back in time and slap some darned sence into ourselves about how self centered and self serving we were.

If I had a nickle for every time I cringed in my adult life recalling what I was like in my teens and early 20s I'd be a wealthy man by now. It's amazing that I was able to get, and hold, a job, much less get a fast start on a reasonably lucrative profession. I suspect that I finally didn't start actually "growing up" until my early 30s, although Sapphire may say that I still have some way to go.

I cant blow any smoke up your skirt about Your particular fashion sence because You're different, but I'm not going to judge You either, all I can say with Brotherly care is that life seems to be a humiliating experience, and I hope you hang in with the rest of us because things do get better, and alot of things get less important.

Without exception, that is one of the best ways I've seen that sentiment put in a very long time.

Youth is a nasty time, frequently for everybody involved. The pressures to conform are enormous, the weight of trying to establish one's self in the world sometimes crushing, and dealing with all of this in a period where one's own sense of self is evolving just adds to the misery. Lots of that used to happen during the teen years when one is in secondary school, but now it seems to be happening in the 20s once one is "out and away" and actually trying to make/find one's way through life -- and it's not easy. It's made worse now by virtue of the economic depression we're in, and that does not show any signs of looking up, at least for the working classes; all we can do is slog forward through the muck and the mire and do the best we can, for if we give up and lie down somebody else will just step on us.

There is not enough money on the planet to make me go back and live in myself from my teens or early 20s for even a single day -- just no way.

[Jack Williams]

Whatever you say, I think it would be hard to beat the mess I was, in teens/early twenties, but survived to be the mess I am today!

[Sarongman]

Too right Jack!From one elderly mess to another Seriously though, like Carl, I'd hate like hell to return to the angst of my teenage years, though the times alone on a MF168, ploughing, and also restoring the Essex from a rolling chassis were good times. Now it's the other end of life that's a worry----like, will the dreaded Alzheimers rear it's ugly head or will; (a) science come to the rescue or, (b) will I keep my wits---oh, and shaduppa you face about my witless posts up there in the back

[skirtedMarine]

Its hard to explain from my perspective, I left home and Mother when I was 17, and joined the Marines, I'm sure you are smarter, and more capable than I am,or was, I hope you arent selling your self short. I think its easier not to conform to society and what THEY expect, I hope you can find the intestinal fortitude (balls ) to play the fooking game like the rest of us! I'm an old retired Marine, I'm not gonna blow smoke in your ass son!

[Caultron]

...I think its easier not to conform to society and what THEY expect, I hope you can find the intestinal fortitude (balls ) to play the fooking game like the rest of us!...

Well said.

It's a shame that it takes such balls to be yourself, but that makes it all the better.

Rock on.

[STEVIE]

Personally,
The cafe and the wider world is a lesser place for the lack of some people.
Steve.