More Meditations on Weirdness

If you're gonna read this post then read my previous post first (http://folkpunkgazesblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/weird-bad.html)

Something else that bugs me but also intrigues me is when people describe themselves as "weird". Or "random". It just doesn't sit well with me. I can't get my head around:
a) the act of calling yourself "weird/random"
b) why it exactly bugs me

Sometimes that sort of thinking just seems to have a tinge of arrogance about it. It seems like they think their habits or quirks are somehow beyond the grasp of everyone else. They're a particularly fascinating kind of individual(I hope you're with me still!) And that just seems a little self aggrandising and self involved. I would say to that person:
Why do you think you're "random"? Everyone is different, and wonderfully individual, but what is it that raises you to "randomness"? Aren't we all equally "random"?

Don't we measure "randomness" or "weirdness" against our own experience? So how can we ourselves be weird, or christen ourselves random, when the normality we're measuring against is ourselves?

Everyone should strive to be DIFFERENT, to be INDIVIDUAL, but the attitude or person I'm hoping I've presented often seems to simply chase randomness/weirdness for the sake of it. Yeah sure, there's mindless, frolicking fun and spontaneity, that is WONDERFUL- but weirdness for weirdness sake? Or thinking of yourself as "random" and never letting that thought run any further? It would seem to suggest that person isn't really comfortable or aware of who they are. Rather than discover an identity and stand out from the crowd, they latch on to some vague concept of "randomness" that has entered the tweenage and teenage consciousness in the past several years, and they're content with a mainstream idea of being different (woah, paradoxical oxymoronic contradiction there! I know right!) I guess it's sort of like the stereotypical goth kids who think they're really non-conformist, but end up looking all the same.

You can recognise when you're DIFFERENT. And you should try to be DIFFERENT. And INDIVIDUAL. I'm a Christian and strive to be different from the world around me, and can acknowledge things that are different about me, and I try to use them to talk to people about Jesus. But I wouldn't call myself random. Not in religious differences or any other field- music, habit, vocal inflections, hairstyle, hobbies, the posters in my room.
I just am what I am, and that can't be weird or random, it just IS. And you are what you are. Falling in line with the crowd and being the same is a danger lots of us hear about all the time- but I think prescribing to a mainstream idea of being "random" and not trying to really be DIFFERENT is an equal danger.

I don't want to seem like I'm attacking or criticising anyone. I don't mean or want to. This idea is half formulated in my head and I reckon I'll spend my whole life experiencing it and thinking about it in new ways. Let me end on this though.

You are you. You are FAR from perfect. But you are meant to be different from everyone else! Don't prescribe to some ridiculous, shallow idea of "weirdness" or "randomness". I think you'd be arrogant to do so and, and selling yourself short of being an individual. Be different. Love difference, hate crowd conformity. Whether it's the crowd who are oblivious that they're conforming or the crowd who think they aren't conforming but are.

Don't let your identity be totally grounded in yourself though. Or any earthly thing. It will let you down. Undeniably. And probably big time. Only God is a reliable foundation to build yourself up on- and living His way in the world we live in, is the ultimate way to be different.