Having recently changed my About.me background image, http://about.me/FTLangela.   I decided to canvass several friends on the appropriateness of the picture.  Does it send the wrong signal?   Does it make me less professional?    Will I lose credibility by showing this picture on my blog as opposed to a dating site?  Will some lunatic stalk me?

I was simply trying to create an attractive and pleasant experience for my viewers. Creating a website is not an easy task despite the existence of wonderful themes; and  mine is still not perfect.

Despite not practicing medicine anymore, or  being religious,  those pesky  unwritten rules  continue to guide my behavior.  After retiring from medicine, it took a couple of years before I realized I could just be me.

So I  now release myself  from any decorum that is not aligned with who I am. To not do so would violate another golden rule of mine: It’s none of my business what other’s think of me. So why should I care?

However, that last question lingered, stirring deep thoughts  revolving around  dress codes for men and women. A man in a suit is appropriately dressed for anything except possibly  the beach; a woman is not as fortunate. We have to manage our clothes like  a business.    It’s really  all about appearance.   People do judge a book by its cover!   Fortunately,   that is no longer my problem.

And thanks to Sheryl Sandberg’s new book, Lean In,  I can rant about the pressure and unfairness of dress codes for professional women.