I LOVE WEIRDOS

I love weirdos. I think people who are “strange” or “different” are the best. People who try to fit into society are the ones that you need to watch for. It is totally and utterly a compliment if I say that you're weird. Beau is the weirdest person I have ever met, and I married him! He has this dry and witty sense of humor that I adore. He says the strangest things at the weirdest times, and he can come up with amazing one-liners on the spot. He has this dragon tattoo on his left calf that he got when he was 18. Did I mention that it's purple? I call it his Barney tattoo. He swears he thought it was silver when he got it. Have you ever seen a silver tattoo? Me neither.

I love people who think outside of the box, who aren't afraid to question, and who have original personalities. Why would you want to be like everyone else? In high school back towards the end of the 90's, I was one of those “gothic” kids. I was the whole nine yards. Red and black striped tights, Marilyn Manson t-shirt, green Doc Martins with purple grape shoelaces, pig tails, and I loved it. I had a small group of friends, and we were all pretty similar, but all so very unique in our own ways. We were often singled out for being so “weird,” when we were the ones getting straight A's, and not doing drugs on the weekends. I remember after Columbine happened, we were even more on the forefront, being singled out constantly. We found it amusing at the time, because we were nothing like those assholes in Colorado. We loved ourselves, and our fellow classmates. We were mad that society had such a negative stereotype towards us, but we didn't let that change us.

I love people who think about their life and the lives of others, mortality and spirituality, but they do it while questioning. What is real and what is not, what matters and what doesn't. People who know that life isn't what it seems, that there are deeper meanings in everything, and to question religion and what it stands for. Those are the people I love. Why live in a box, believing everything that is told to you? What kind of progress would we make as a race?

Charden is a very strange child, and why wouldn't she be? She really had no chance, with us as parents. For Father's Day, the card she made Beau had a purple ghost on it, and nothing else. In preschool she was asked to draw a self portrait of her self at the beginning of the year, at the middle, and at the end. The first one is a normal, three year old self portrait. She's upsidedown, and you can make out two little legs sticking up at the top, and hair at the bottom:

She turned four in November. In January, her self portrait included her teacher, which she adored:

Finally, at the end of the year, her self portrait looked like this:

That's Charden, in a cocoon. Her final self portrait is of her as a caterpillar in metamorphosis. How awesome is that?

I'm going to do my best to raise my kids to think differently, to see everyone as equal, and to question. Please question everything. Now, that doesn't mean you can question everything now, little Charden. If I tell you to wash your hands because you picked up that pile of “rocks” that you found in the backyard (it was rabbit shit), you do it. Don't ask why.

Here are some more incredibly random questions Charden has asked recently:

“But Mommy, if we die, how will we go potty?”

“Mommy, did you know that old people like pineapple?”

“Mommy, where do berry bushes grow? Do they grow in Africa or in Paris? They're in Africa, aren't they?”

“Mommy, when I die, what family will you pick for me next?”

Clearly she is already thinking differently, and that excites me.

I feel that I have always been different than those around me, and I see it in Charden as well. Sometimes it's not the easiest life to find yourself different from your peers, but it can be incredibly interesting and rewarding. There is a great peacefulness found in the acceptance of others and their differences from yourself. The key is to find that acceptance in you. The happiness will follow. You need to know what you believe in and why. It doesn't matter if it's different from what your neighbor thinks. If you're an atheist, you should be able to say why you came to that conclusion beyond “I don't believe in God.” Why don't you? If you're Christian, be able to say why. And saying, “I believe in God because the Bible says so” is not a good reason. I spent a ridiculous amount of time thinking and feeling about religion, mortality, and spirituality, and I am very confident with who I am. I am going to do my best to get my kids in the same place, though I think experience plays a major role is the acceptance of one's self.

So to all the weirdos out there, keep it moving forward. Keep being yourself. Think beyond what is right in front of you. That is the only way that progress can be made.