Bedroom Walls

I think how you choose to decorate your bedroom says a lot about you. Certainly it does when you're young. Often bedroom decorations share current and past interests. When I was a kid my walls were filled with St. Louis Cardinal paraphernalia and a Nerf basketball hoop. That's it. I wasn't necessarily all that worldly.

As I got older my interests broadened. Popular culture became increasingly important to me and my room reflected this. And while some of the things on my bedroom walls reflected who I was at the time I think even more of them reflected how I wished others would see me. That's what teenaged years are for, right? Trying on different identities in hopes of finding your own.

 One of my favorite posters at the time was of a shirtless Jim Morrison adorned in a hippy bead necklace with his arms stretched out to the sides. This poster received the prime real estate on my wall just beside the bedroom door. Across the bottom it read "American Poet". That Jim Morrison had been an addict who basked in his fame while mistreating nearly every single human being he came into contact with was lost on me at the time. I just thought he was reckless and super cool. I wanted to be reckless and super cool too.

Another favorite poster was of James Dean. I had seen each of his three films and had watched a number of documentaries about him. Even then I knew his acting was cheesy but I couldn't help enjoying him all the same. Like Jim Morrison he seemed to have a disregard for what other people thought or expected from him and refused to conform in any way. I wasn't at all like this at a fifteen year old but I sure wished I could have been.

Not all of the  posters on my wall were of men. I also had a Samantha Fox poster near the window. It was much more suggestive than the example above (evidently I felt it was okay to display in my bedroom back then but NOT okay to publish on this blog). In addition to thinking Samantha Fox was totally hot I liked the idea that this poster probably made my mom uncomfortable. It was my small rebellion.

My bedroom today is pretty boring. Tricia and I are surrounded by four tan walls that have a grand total of three randomly placed small items. One is a picture of my old school in St. Louis. It was given to me as a parting gift when I left. Another is a sketch of the Preservation Hall jazz players jamming on the sidewalk in front of their historical building. The third is a small tile with a well known painting on it. To be honest, neither Tricia nor I know what the painting is but it looks as though it's probably well known to other people who actually have some working knowledge of fine art. As you can imagine, it was a gift.

That's it. Our walls are probably about 95% empty. We could argue that we just moved in a year ago but our bedroom in the last house was just as bare. What does this say about us? Yikes, I hope bedrooms really don't say all that much about you as an adult because if so I'm an awfully dull guy.

Ainsley is now in the process of filling up her bedroom walls. She has a wide variety- from cute animals to a map of the USA to a homemade poster declaring her love of Harry Potter (not the book but the fictional boy wizard). She just added a new picture to her wall this morning. She saw it in one of my backpacking magazines and asked if I might cut it out for her.

It is of Bear Grylls, star of Man vs Wild. In this "reality" show Bear is dropped into the middle of nowhere and demonstrates various survival skills for escaping. We were all watching together a few nights ago when I turned to inform Tricia that should the opportunity ever arise I would understand if she wanted to leave me for Bear. Unlike Jim Morrison, Bear really is super cool.

Ainsley must have agreed. Before pinning the picture above her bed she colored in a number of colored hearts around him and even added an impression of her lips near the top of his right ear. While I can understand the sentiment I have to say I'm a bit concerned by her boldness. If this is what she's hanging up at eight years old what can we expect at sixteen?