THE WORLD IS NATURALLY WEIRDER THAN WE ALLOW IT TO BE
This thought came up a couple of times. Yes, the world is inherently weird. I could talk about quantum phenomenon (though I’m no scientist). I could talk about our intuition. These are a bit weird.
All of that is fine and dandy. Instead, though, the seed of this insight was the interview that Hunter S. Thompson did with Keith Richards. (https://youtu.be/sM2KFgivhsA)
In the beginning moments, Keith refuses to give the interview until Hunter has been paid in cash. Hunter starts off with a megaphone playing animal sounds (presumably pigs fornicating). And the masses watch two people on prime-time TV who achieved incredible fame while breaking many social conventions.
These are things that will be remembered. These are things that will be felt.
We distill, sterilize and proceeduralize in order to lay ourselves upon the altar of efficiency. Efficiency has it’s place. Procedures have their place. Strategy has it’s place.
What is lost as we pray exclusively to these altars is our humanity. We are human. Bridges between the animal realm and higher consciousness. We are not machines, nor do we need to aspire to be.
We need play and spontaneity in our lives. We need weirdness in our lives.
I attract and intentionally surround myself with beautifully weird people. People who do not harm anyone (in fact, they are very giving) and make life interesting. I love seeing and learning from their weirdness. I appreciate that they encourage me to let mine out.
Look – I’m not saying you should make a loincloth out of bacon and run around your neighborhood at 3am, singing Yankee Doodle Dandy. Then again, I’m not saying not to either.
What I’m saying is – we are all weird in our own way. That we often appreciate it when others show a bit of their weirdness, because it gives us a rare glimpse of who they are. Of our shared humanity.
Don’t sterilize your weirdness. Allow it out to play. Allow it to find others who appreciate and encourage it. Have fun along the way.
In HST’s words, “Buy the ticket, take the ride.”