Fandom, Engagements, and Treadmills

A journey that started in a stationary machine

Very few great things start on treadmills, but I’m gonna tell you about one.

Having spent some time on them at the gym, though not nearly as much as I should, time spent on treadmills is usually just something to endure. I guess cardio is a good thing, but I've never heard somebody say, “Running at a constant speed on top of a large belt on a stationary machine next to multiple sweaty people surrounded by TV screens showing things I don't really want to watch is so, so inspiring!”

In the Fall of 2007, I was on one of these treadmills at the gym on the Sprint campus in Overland Park, KS. On one of the TVs was CMT (is that still a thing?). On the screen was a clearly talented, teenage girl playing the guitar and singing a really catchy song. As I listened/watched, I’m now embarrassed at my first thought. It was this:

“I wonder who wrote this song for her. Songwriters are so underappreciated.”

More on this later in the post . . .

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A few years ago, I was with a group of college students who were starting their semester in the IBC Program. A core part of that experience is the students getting to know each other and connecting so that they can actually work together to run a start-up. In one instance I saw a student (we’ll call him Tim) talk about something he was really into. Tim’s face lit up and you could tell it was something he was passionate about. But then another guy in the group (and there’s often an insecure guy like this in every group; we’ll call him Dan) proceeded to make fun of the Tim’s hobby. You’ve seen stuff like this happen. It was rough and getting rougher, like Dan was really going for it.

But then, before it could get worse, one of the women in the group bravely interrupted Dan and introduced a phrase I’d never heard and have since never forgotten:

“Don’t yuck someone’s yum!”

With that declaration, this part of the conversation immediately ended, and I could see the gratitude vibes coming from Tim.

We use this phrase in my family now whenever we catch someone bagging on someone else’s interests. People are into their things. We’re all awfully quirky. And if you think you’re not, that’s beautiful, and you’re wrong.

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So here we go… Many of you already know this about me, so I’ll just say it:

I’m a 50-year-old, male, Swifty.

The video I saw in that gym all those years ago was “Our Song”, one of Taylor Swift’s early videos. I’m embarrassed with my assumption that someone else wrote the song. We would all come to learn that, whatever you think of Taylor’s music, this is one of the most prolific, brilliant, songwriting geniuses of our time. And strangely, over her career she has really, like really, bothered some people – mostly men. That’s too bad for them. (I came close to listing and talking here about famous men saying mean things about TS, but that wasn’t the energy I’m hoping for here)

I’m a girl dad - really proud of that. Taylor’s rise as an artist lines up perfectly with my own two girls growing up. It’s mattered for our relationship over time. In the last couple years, because of TS, we’ve had our favorite concert experience of all-time (Eras Tour in Seattle) and they’ve even watched football games with me. As a life-long KC Chiefs fan as well, you can probably get that it’s like we hit the lottery with what’s happened with Travis. Heck, even the title of this blog is a not-at-all-veiled-reference to my favorite TS song. (I promise this isn’t going to become a Taylor Swift blog site though)

Of course, this all just peaked again with the massive podcast/album-reveal and then the engagement announcement this week. So incredibly fun . . . it’s just happy to see happy sometimes. It’s irrational, I know, but it does feel like a family member got engaged. (you can roll your eyes at that one)

And yet, I see narrative out there taking the typical shots at Taylor, Travis, and now suddenly, even marriage?! (yeah, I may read too much internet stuff sometimes) Bummer…

Honestly, I catch myself occasionally cringing about what others are into. And I’ve made the mistake, sadly even with my own adult children, of saying unnecessarily negative things about the hobbies/interests of people. After years of feeling occasionally self-conscious about my own TS fandom because of fear of what others think/say, I should be better about that. (For the record, I’m now completely confident in that fandom, so no need to reassure)

Life’s just too short to spend it “yucking yums”. So I’ll keep blasting the Reputation album. You keep loving your thing. And maybe let’s make the world just a little less yucky by cheering each other on!