Beware the Should Shroud

Most of the things that people stress about are inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.

inconsequential -
adjective
of no significance

Too many of us are a facade of our inconsequential "should thoughts": Where should I live? How should I dress? Whom should I vote for? How much money should I earn? What kind of car should I drive? Whose ass should I kiss? What kind of wine should I like? Who should be able to marry whom (much less whom they should be able to have sexual relations with)?

We are overly concerned with trying to fake our way up Maslow's hierarchy of needs by fitting ourselves into a "should shroud" that we've created by assimilating the opinions and mannerisms of those to whom we wish to appear cool or affluent or intelligent or businesslike or pious or attractive or however else we think others think we should appear. We shrouded souls buy trendy clothes because that's what our peers buy. We join political parties because our parents were members, not because we understand the real life ramifications of a party's platform. We drive a car that we think reflects status or will get us laid.

What really gets me riled up though, is that most of the stuff that we focus on is totally inconsequential to us in the grand scheme of life. We're not thinking about how our shoulds will affect us directly from an analytically honest perspective. We're worried about not fitting in or feeling embarrassed for standing out from our crowd by having a differing thought. We are blindly marching to a drum beat without understanding the rationale for the tempo or knowing who is really leading the band.

I am going to focus on applying analytical honesty to examining inconsequentialities and turning them inside out to discover life's consequentialities.

consequentiality -
noun
notions having significant importance with respect to power to produce an effect