The Fool's Word

When people say “you’re weird,” to me that means nothing except a compliment. I think it’s the highest honour when you’re being called weird. Nobody should be ashmed of it. Being weird means you stand out. You’re unique, peculiar, or in other words, interesting.

Of course, there are two branches of being weird. One is the negative sense, the other is the positive. But I figure that majority of the occasions, even when it’s intended to be taken negatively by someone, I try to take it well and say thank you. It means you’re zapping someone’s pressure points. You’re keeping them on their toes so to speak, which is a phrase I’m borrowing from the late George Carlin, a comedian.

Being weird also has the advantage of getting rid of people if you play your cards right. That is if you want to get rid of them. Let’s say you’re in a party you think is fucking lame. So you throw some fuel into the fire by shouting something embarrassing right the moment the music stops. And so suddenly, all eyes are on you. You can then make an “impressionistic” exit if you so choose.

But there is a deeper sense in which being weird not only makes the people around you hooked on what you say or do, like a great performer, you have the capacity in those moments to really affect people and make strange impressions that ordinarily would be difficult to surface in an ordinary social situation.

I’m talking about spirituality in particular here. As I’ve experimented this first hand, but you have to be subtle in your interactions. And the “subtle art of being weird,” is I think one of the most important attributes a human being can have. Because it enables social situations, though rare, that “unnerves” the moment. Where you see an honest rascal in front of you, who does not seem to care whether they are embarrassed in front of you.

I know, I’m being weird. But life is weird. It’s damn strange. In fact, nothing is more peculiar than the cosmos. The more we seem to have it wrapped in terms of how it works, it surprises us with new discoveries. And one philosopher went so far as to say that whenever we look into the universe, the universe has to escape its own examination to get away from us. It wouldn’t do that if we stopped chasing it. Now how’s that for weirdness?

It means essentially that we will never stop discovering new things. And that to me is the supreme weird. So, there is definitely no harm in being weird. On the contrary, the whole mystery of life is based on things being odd, out of place, confusing, and baffling. But people are not readily to admit that they are just rascals, a bunch of goofballs going around pretending to be serious. And so this is where I come into the picture. To remind you, that things being weird, is the same thing as their vitality.

The occasional surprises that come our way, are absolutely essential to the game of life. Without them, the whole system would’ve committed suicide a long time ago. But what’s weird in this, is that the number one rule that we play, whether we’re aware of it or not, is that this game is not a game. Instead we’re morbidly serious, especially in church and in a court of law. Why is God so uncomfortable with chuckles in his presence? I think that’s fucking weird!

Well anyway, weirdness definitely has its place in matters of social, societal, scientific, philosophical, or every which way you can think of. But people who want to claim that we should take things seriously, well I agree with them up to a point. There’s such a thing as too serious. And that’s where I begin to have problems. If you want to claim that existence is ultimately serious, then you can’t really come to terms with the fact that our brightest and most cherished moments, involve laughter.

You’re a stuck up stuffy skeleton if you think that existence is a serious business, with a serious goal. Sure, it can be fun in its own way to consider things being more than trivial, but being trivial and being playful are two distinct things to me in this regard. In fact, I equate playfulness or play with the highest sense of being there is. Going as far as to claim that you are God in disguise, pretending to be your ego. How’s that for weird?

T.F.