Rejects

Every other month or so I receive a random magazine addressed to me. A few months ago it was a magazine called "Organic Living." I think it was a new publication and they just decided to send it to people as a test.

The other day I received a copy of Metropolitan Home in my name. Other than paranoia that I might get billed for a subscription that I didn't sign up for, I was happy to get a free issue. And the fact that I was sent Metropolitan Home hopefully meant I was on some mailing list that thinks I have a good taste. Or that I live in a home that could look like one of the homes in the magazine. (I don't. I live in an apartment building which I find quite ghetto much of the time.) Or maybe the publisher magically sensed the hidden architect in me and knew that I would appreciate an issue of their publication.

I proceeded to flip through the magazine, looking for an article that would catch my eye. As I flip through the mag I noticed there was something taped to the back of the magazine. I turn it over to the back cover, and what do I find but a piece of white paper taped to the back cover. Across the paper in big black capital letters spelled the word "REJECTS." And when I say the letters are big, I mean they are like 60 pt. size font. REJECTS. For a brief second I thought it was part of some clever advertising. I hoped anyway. But reality quickly set in - we're talking about Metropolitan Home here, not Maxim. Metropolitan Home does not contain clever, tongue-in-cheek, risque ads. Advertisers like that don't buy space in magazines like that. Nay, the ad on the back cover was for Bodum glasses.

So it wasn't the advertisers. I suppose it was the publishers. In any case, SOMEONE taped the word "REJECTS" on the back of my magazine. Labeling my copy of Met Home a reject. And I felt like someone just slapped the same exact sign on my back. Oh what a tease. Give me an unexpected surprise and then call it a reject. It is at once comical and insulting.

But how true that feels of life...walking around feeling a little bit like a reject and doing what you could to cover that up and act like you belong. And somehow on this one magazine back cover lies the truth. REJECTS.

What else can I say?