Is there much of a difference between being rebellious and being contrary? I suspect it all depends on where you're looking at it from.
The rebel, intent on ploughing their own furrow, sees it as brave - heroic even. A determination to do things their own way, however illogical and hard. It was good enough for Jimmy Dean, after all.
Others might observe it as the behavior of the contrary, curmudgeonly and down-right difficult. Someone who is unwilling to see that the reason the furrows are ploughed in predictable rows is because it makes things a damn sight easier at harvest time.
Individuality is inevitably more effort than conformity. So, perhaps, rebellion is one of the first things to go when precious resources, such as time and energy, start to dwindle.
But it seems to be in the DNA for some of us. One day, science will show that we were awkward and belligerent because we couldn't help it.
One of my acts of rebellion was to have more holes pierced through my ears than the standard one per lobe. But my mildly alternative body decoration petered out many years ago when I couldn't be bothered to put the earrings back in after I had been forced to remove them for a medical thing (see, I'm not really committed to rebellion).
Then last night for no reason I can now remember, I started wondering if any of the piercings had closed up. Before I knew it I was hunting for an earring.
Now, I think I'm rebelling against middle age. A new tattoo and some very loud hair dye might be next, what do you think?
