Today’s question from the MFRW blog hop: Allergies—How to endure them without suffering overmuch.

Aside from spring hay fever, easily quelled with over-the-counter meds, I don’t suffer from any physical allergies, thank the gods. My psyche, however, reacts in unpleasant ways to environmental triggers—such as marketers pushing pointless crap because it’s “trending.”

My daughter, age twenty-five, helped me label this affliction: I’m allergic to “basic.” Urban Dictionary’s defines the term as follows:

 only interested in things mainstream, popular, and trending

Omg BAE is so basic. all she wants to do is drink pumpkin spice lattes and play candy crush.

Now, I have nothing against sweet coffee drinks, though I’m not a fan. I don’t get the point of Ugg boots in summer, crushing virtual candy on one’s phone, fake nails, or spray tans, but to each her own. Celebrity gossip? Don’t care. Posting selfies on Insta? Fine in moderation, but how about paying attention to the world around you rather than “curating” a fake life of camera-ready conformity?

Do I sound like a grumpy old broad? Fair enough. Like every generation before me, I’m perplexed and amused by the antics of the young. And I was a bit more trend-conscious in my youth, clomping around in ankle-bending platform shoes and submitting my poor scalp to those awful 80s perms. What were we thinking?

But trend-addiction isn’t limited to the young. Lots of my age-mates seem afflicted, picking their looks and pastimes from the most popular options, seldom giving a thought (as far as I can tell) to expressing their individuality.

Perhaps my lens is distorted by age, but it seems there’s more pressure now than in my youth (70s and 80s) to follow trends and present a false front to the world, especially via social media. And that pressure makes me itchy. People who hide their light under a bushel of conformity make me sneeze. A trip to the mall triggers a full-on psychic wheezing fit.

The cure? Time with creative people. Young, old, or in-between, artistic folks who go their own funky way are a delight. Fortunately, I live in a town full of creative types. Tacoma has a lively arts scene, tons of live music venues, a diverse population, and a gritty, blue-collar vibe. So if I need an allergy shot, I can just stroll down 6^th Avenue and chat up some interesting people.

Go ahead, call me judgmental. Mea culpa. But let me posit that discernment is a useful trait. And mainstream popular culture isn’t designed to make our lives better; it’s designed to make feel bad about ourselves so we’ll buy stuff.

If you’ve made it to the end of my rant, thanks for your patience. What sort of psychic allergies make your spirit sneeze?