Bad taste better than no taste?


If you’ve looked at certain websites, been passed an email with tacky-terrible images or watched any number of trashy TV reality shows, you know that some people have no shame.  Their only taste may be in their mouths, but they don’t care.  They’re putting themselves out there on proud display!


Sometimes they pay a lot of money to look so tacky-bad, think the Real Housewives of Beverly Hill and NYC.  (Dolly Parton once said, “It takes a lot of money to look this cheap.”)  Sometimes they have little money and are just making do with what they have as in Red Neck WeddingBridezilla, and Hot Ghetto Mess.


I have come to have a grudging admiration for these folks even when they make me cringe.  Why?  Because they are living their lives fully. They seem to be having fun, big fun.  They don’t give a fat rat about what other people think.  And I think that must be freeing.  Even when I’m not looking my best and have made no effort to, I am aware that I don’t look my best and I am concerned with how I appear. 


Caring what other people think will clip your wings.  While we must all do a bit of editing especially in our public lives, we don’t need to edit ourselves into oblivion.  Many of the people with impeccable good taste that I know don’t see to have fun.  I’ve been to parties where everything was just so but there was no spark, camaraderie, or joie de vivre. It is hard to imagine these people doing anything that will put a hair out of place or work up a sweat (dancing, arguing or making love).  They may look good but being around them often doesn’t feel so good. 


The folks with bad taste are creating memories now.  They’re not waiting until the one day when they get the new couch to have people over.  They’re not concerned that the dishes match or they have the proper serving utensils.   They’re not delaying going to the beach or out dancing until they lose twenty pounds.  They aren’t waiting until they can afford to put on a spread – it’s potluck or a big pot of spaghetti and some wine coolers.  It’s come as you are not as you think you need to be. They are living in the here and now and pushing the boundaries of taste and sometimes decorum.  I can’t be like them but I can take a lesson or two from their play book.  Have fun whenever you can, while you can…and do it ’til you’re satisfied.


Hats off to them for living life now rather than acting like this is the dress rehearsal. 
It just might be, after all, that it’s better to have bad taste than no taste at all.


About Candelaria Silva

Candelaria Silva-Collins is a marketing, community outreach and programming consultant; writer; and trainer/facilitator who lives in Boston, Massachusetts. She has designed and facilitated workshops on a wide variety of topics including communication, facilitation, job search skills, team building, and parenting issues. She currently coordinates the Community Membership Program of the Huntington Theatre Company. Her work as Director of ACT Roxbury was profiled in several publications, including The Creative Communities Builders Handbook. Candelaria’s children’s stories, short stories, essays and reviews have been published in local and national publications and she is an active blogger. Her publications include the booklets, Handling Rejection; Pushing through Shyness: Networking Tips when You’re Shy, Slow to Warm Up or Just don’t Feel you Belong; and Real Questions about Sex & Relationships for Teens: A Discussion Guide for Parents. She has served on the boards of Goddard College, Wheelock Family Theatre, Boston Foundation for Architecture, and Discover Roxbury. She is currently Chair, Designators of the Henderson Foundation.