Weird and wonderful

To be considered weird isn’t usually a compliment. On occasion, perhaps. But very few of you would assume that this word suggests a positive message or sincere praise. It isn’t taken that way.

A light-hearted banter between friends would be the exception. Oh yes, a warm-hearted jest puts all the bad word fears to rest.

Weird and wonderful: this is one explanation and a word combination that is reserved for the use of old friends.

But typically – by definition and cultural consensus – normal is in and weird is out. Way out. Unless, or course, your type of weird suddenly becomes normal and therefore is in. Don’t ask me how these things happen – they just do. All I know, is that everything gets complicated and very confused. And really weird. One minute you’re an outsider and the next you are ushered in. A cold shoulder is replaced with a red carpet. Suddenly the good vibes are coming your way. Your style becomes the style, etc. Soon it is all about you.

Not that I speak from experience. And likely, neither do you. Most of us are probably getting tired dancing around trying to avoid getting stamped with the wrong stamps and hopefully stamped with the right stamps. Stamping other people is reserved for an elite few.

Speaking of stamps, the weirdo label is usually even worse. This six-letter dynamo of a word has been known to stop grown men in the tracks; it has the power to cause determined walkers to turn and walk away. It is one of the heavy-hitters in the English language to be sure. It pack a punch; puts people in their place. It ranks right up there with extremist and sometimes evangelical.

Weirdo is the polar opposite of mainstream. Armed with such vocabulary, people who don’t believe in morality go about making moral statements. Call it modern magic or delusional democracy. Call it what you like. While it used to be a choice between out and in, now the sense is that we are dealing with right and wrong, good and bad. Imagine Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker standing side by side. That’s the idea.

Once you are in with Vader you’re out for good.

Moving along.

For that matter, wacko rarely signs up for word-duty in the same sentence as wonderful either. But maybe enough has already been said. The point has been made. Our attention has deliberately been drawn to the obvious: We all probably tend to prefer what is said to be normal; that is the label that most of us are looking for. At the same time, we often have the sense that our take on things or our society’s take on things is authoritative – even if it isn’t.

It is unsettling and unnerving to be around people who are different. It is awkward. You don’t know what to expect. And then, it is also a challenge to feel like we belong if we don’t know how we are supposed to behave.

For any number of reasons, we feel like we need to conform.

If we were to take things to the next level, it would go without saying that a person who is said to be off their rocker likely doesn’t get a lot of dinner invitations. Few tender souls want to be tiptoeing over for tea only to be confronted with a collection of crazy people sitting across the way on the couch. It’s unnerving. It isn’t normal. Can’t say that I blame them.

For the record, today’s rambling and reflecting about “weirdness” got started because someone I know very well (not to mention any names, or course) said something that caught my attention. The comment went like this:

“People need to take advantage of their weirdness.” Yes, that is a fairly accurate quote of what was actually said.

Rest assured, that believing whatever you like and living however you please was not the focus of the conversation. You know by now that you won’t be hearing a pitch for a purely relativistic philosophy of life here at Career & Life Direction. But how about a clarion call to get in touch with your inner weirdness?

How about that?