Flip the mirror
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I like eccentric people. Eccentrics are fun because they keep plastic lobsters as pets; they wear bird nests for hats; they have insightful conversations with kitchen appliances and name their kids “Moon Unit” and “Dweezle.”
They know other people think they’re weird and choose to celebrate it instead of going with the flow. It’s inspiring, really. How many people do you know (be honest) that are 100-percent, fully committed to being themselves, no matter what anyone else says, does or thinks? It’s a nice sentiment, and it looks good on a Facebook page with the words superimposed over a beach sunset, but I doubt many of you (or me, for that matter) have ever had the courage to go to work in a suit made of fruit rollups.
Being yourself is dangerous, because going along to get along is easier and safer. Wanting to belong is human nature, really. We’re social creatures, and we like having people around us who enjoy the same stuff. It gives us a sense of acceptance and understanding.
But there is a downside to being yourself, isn’t there? If you have the nerve to let the world see the real you, flaws and dirty secrets included, you’ll be labeled different, weird, out-there, strange and in some cases, downright insane.
For most who try, it doesn’t work out very well.
However, a lucky few were so eccentric they became wildly famous. They used their “crazy-fame” to flip the mirror and force us to look at our lives, on their terms.
And when we see the world as they do, we realize they aren’t far “our there” to begin with. Realizing that changes everything.
My argument here is pretty simple: everybody is weird in their own special way. The ones with the courage to let the weird out for all to see, are the ones who change the world. Here are a couple of examples:
The Artist: Salvador Dali
According to his 1989 obituary in The Deseret News, Dali was known for his “fantastic and memorable dreamscapes” that became the cornerstone to his surrealist art filled with melting clocks, naked women and gravity-defying photographs of cats, water and demonically-inspired mustaches.
He also wore the most obnoxious, loud, mismatched colors and garments imaginable, owned more than 30 walking sticks of varied cultural, political and culinary significance, referred to himself in the third person as “The Devine Dali” and called his preoccupation with the occult, the obscure and the strange and weird his “sublime craziness.”
He was expelled from art school for, of all things, arrogance, and was briefly jailed for “Catalonian separatist political activities.”
But hey, it’s like Dali said, “‘The only difference between a crazy person and me is the fact that I’m not crazy.’”
Not admitting it is the first step. Well done, bro.
The Brain: Albert Einstein
Einstein was, well, he was Einstein.
His work in the fields of mathematics and physics forever changed the way we look at time, space, matter, energy and gravity. He showed mankind how to control atomic energy, how light works and how to better explore space.
He also refused to wear socks, lectured his 8-year-old grandson on physics as though he were a peer, and would only go sailing if there was no wind because, “It’s harder.”
According to a 2005 interview with his grandson, Einstein would smoke cigarette butts he found in the street. Yup, that’s right, folks. The father of atomic energy and modern science was a very strange.
Moral of the story? If you’re weird, embrace it. You might flip the mirror, and if you do, you might change the world.
