America Needs More Eccentric People
As in quirky and unusual in a good way…
I’ve long admired the British, and I can’t exactly say why. Was it Princess Diana who riveted me? Perhaps it was the influence of performers like David Bowie and Elton John? Now I’m into Mary Berry and watching The Great British Baking Show and Shetland (which is Scottish, yes). The British people celebrate eccentrics, while we in America do it as a group for comfort’s sake or we hide it away from the world.
Why can’t Prince Charles talk to his plants? What’s up with my British neighbors sitting out on their small deck with a steaming pot of tea on a steamy day? Why did I flinch when I first went over to greet my new neighbors, and they asked me to look at his photography portfolio which started out as all landscapes. When his pictures morphed into naked women I listened to his wife in astonishment as she remarked on his fine work on the nude women. I’m cool with the human form being beautiful, but these were first impressions, and I didn’t quite know what to think. When he offered to take my daughter’s senior photos years later, I imagined her sans clothing and said we already had a studio chosen.
What I love about this British couple is how they don’t mind standing out one bit. Most evenings she knits while he plays the piano, and I was told when they were courting her mother wanted to keep hearing the piano playing as it meant his hands and lips weren’t near her at all! If they only knew nude photos of all kinds of women were in their future I wonder what they would have thought. I imagine they would have laughed.
The quirky people in our country are given a wide berth, which is a shame. Almost all of us aren’t normal, and I mean that in a very good way. I have a very unusual middle child, as in she’s not typical. Once when it was her turn to mow our yard, she went into the costume bin (which is reserved for Halloween and dress-up days at school) and found a Jason-style hockey mask. She wore it as she mowed, and years later when she told us the story she said a great many cars slowed down to watch her, so she would slowly turn her head and stare at them. This is quirky.
One other time this child had a Disney dress up day for the seniors for School Spirit Week, and I thought she’d drag the pretty yellow gown out of the bin to be Belle, from Beauty and the Beast. Imagine my surprise when at 6:30 a.m. she handed me two towels and a roll of duct tape and asked me to tape them bunched over her left shoulder. My daughter was the hunchback of Notre Dame, and a teacher friend said she stayed in character in the hallways and even rang a bell she brought from home. Her boyfriend was aghast, but I admired her pluck and courage. Her friends were all princesses.
I suppose being eccentric is so much more than being willing to dress up and stick out in a crowd. It means finding out my son loves karaoke and can belt out Adele’s Hello like I’ve never heard! He's good, and I never knew! He’s in college and loves being in a bowling league. Bowling isn’t exactly an “in” sport, but I’m proud he does as he pleases. I’ve long learned to not feel ashamed for my fondness of strange fantasy novels, and no, they’re not perverted. I’ve read Dune, and now I’m going through A Song of Ice and Fire to see how closely the series Game of Thrones matches up with the book.
We need people who are willing to boldly pursue their interests even if it’s something most of us would not choose to do. I know a man in Britain (see the theme here?) who etches engravings using microscopes. He is in the Guinness Book of World Records for doing this, and he spends all night working on these etchings. Why ever not?
We need more of us willing to stand out. In pursuing unusual pasttimes we come to honor ourslves. I’m so glad my mom didn’t try to make me move on from playing pretend when I was in middle-school, because it fed me later in creative writing in class. I did yoga with my mom that summer, and this was all from a book. I don’t want to say how long ago it was, but yoga and fitness hadn’t become mainstream at all. Not even close.
Why don’t more people don a cape as they run? Don’t be shy. Play Quidditch, though good luck actually flying. Role play every Sunday with your family. Talk to your flowers, create odd-scented candles. Though I’m not taking the advice of my son and creating an assortment that has nice scents and a nasty one like earwax thrown in for good fun.
Embrace who you are. It’s okay if you don’t fit it. Once we’re out of high school none of us needs to fit into a clique any longer for safety or comfort. As long as others don’t get hurt, it’s great to explore what you want to do in your time off from work. The idea is to be true to yourself without concern for what the people around you think. If your group doesn’t get it, then don’t tell them.
Be yourself. Be eccentric and don’t worry about fitting in. We’ve come a long way in embracing unique people, but we still have far to go. I’m called out for loving the British royal family. Why? If I want to follow them, it shouldn’t matter to anyone else.
We need to stop trying to fit it. We don’t have to do that at all. I’ll celebrate your weirdness, as long as you’re not going down the Jeffrey Dahmer path. I look forward to reading about what you’re doing in your spare time. Repeat after me. “We are all unique….” (You know the Monty Python answer to this, don’t you??) Ah, best to leave it right here.
See you on the eccentric side of life.
