RANT, Please ignore

[Sandy Jasper]

Walden

Thanks for sharing that story with us. I am guessing that your point is that to condem people because they are different, normal or for any other sterio type may lead us into the road of ignorance?

Anyway, it touched me, but left me sad because I really don't understand man's inhumanity to man. I have pondered this many a time and have come up with just a few thoughts.

1) We are not all built the same, some are missing compassion. It is those people who do the really terrible things, I am not one of them.

2) In fear many can follow the few who are in control, the worst things happen when those of good concience can not assert themselves for fear, a fear that is real and a fear that is justified.

Weird vs. Normal

Being weird often means that you are not afraid to show your own character at the risk of being or not being accepted.

Being normal can be one of 2 things.

1) The person really is more comfortable not taking risks and likes a mellow existance. I respect that.

2)It can mean they do not feel acceptance out of the box, in their fear they condemn those who they do not perceive as following the rules. These people I do not hate, but I do feel sorry for. They live their lives for other people, judging themselves harshly. Let us not join them!

Have a great day all you wonderful weirdos!!!

Sandy

[Walden]

On 2003-02-02 14:51

The trail of the exiles was a trail of death. They had to sleep in the wagons and on the ground without fire. And I have known as many as twenty-two of them to die in one night of pneumonia due to ill treatment, cold, and exposure. Among this number was the beautiful Christian wife of Chief John Ross. This noble hearted woman died a martyr to childhood, giving her only blanket for the protection of a sick child. She rode thinly clad through a blinding sleet and snow storm, developed pneumonia and died in the still hours of a bleak winter night, with her head resting on Lieutenant Greggs saddle blanket.

John and Elizabeth Ross were my great-great-great-great-great uncle and aunt.

[CraigMc]

Are serial killers weird?

weird ( P ) Pronunciation Key (wîrd)
adj. weird·er, weird·est
Of, relating to, or suggestive of the preternatural or supernatural.
Of a strikingly odd or unusual character; strange.
Archaic. Of or relating to fate or the Fates.

Blanket statements unless defined are best left unsaid because obviously the word is completely subjective.

Another question...when I was a kid..why did girls call me weird when what they really ment was they liked me, thought I was cute, thought I was funny, I made them laugh. I can't tell you how often I was called weird as a kid. I never liked the word, usually I would just smile but It usually kicked me out of my entertaining mood pretty quick. My experience has shown me that girls use this word to decribe what they like, it's easier than admitting something that may be unpopular.

Luckily I've been been able to explain this phenomenon to my son who is gifted with an pretty advanced sense of humour and called this as well.

[2nd Wind]

Thanks for sharing Walden...I've heard many stories such as yours through either education or going to many of the pow-wow ceremonies that would come through or that we would go to. I've met a lot of interesting & respectable people in Oklahoma. The biggest group would be the "Unconquerable Chickasaw Nation". Good for them.

Out of all things I guess I have only one thing to say:
"I absolutely friggin' hate Gold"

[CraigMc]

I am guessing that your point is that to condem people because they are different, normal or for any other sterio type may lead us into the road of ignorance?

Sandy, How can you say this then go on to stereo type?

Weird vs. Normal

Being weird often means that you are not afraid to show your own character at the risk of being or not being accepted.

Being normal can be one of 2 things.

1) The person really is more comfortable not taking risks and likes a mellow existance. I respect that.

2)It can mean they do not feel acceptance out of the box, in their fear they condemn those who they do not perceive as following the rules. These people I do not hate, but I do feel sorry for. They live their lives for other people, judging themselves harshly. Let us not join them!

Have a great day all you wonderful weirdos!!!

Sandy

My turn

Weird vs. Normal

Being "Normal" often means that you are not afraid to show your own character at the risk of being or not being accepted by those who place their value on being weird and suffer from the selfserving attitude that only they are unique and "Normal" people are weak or brainwashed.

Being weird can be one of 2 things.

1) The person really is more comfortable annoying others by constantly trying to show how unique and different and free thinking they are by pushing the boundaries of society regardless of the damage they may do to themselves and those around them.

2)It can mean they do not feel acceptance out of the box, in their fear they condemn those who they perceive as following the rules. I don't even dislike them, but I do feel sorry for them. They live their lives for themselves only, judging others harshly. Let us not join them!

Have a great day all you wonderful Normal folks and even you weird folks that think your god's gift to uniqueness!!!

-Craig
...who has suffered at the hand of a punk who felt he was too "Normal"


Sheesh Starpixy you really hit a sore spot with your broad proclamation...If I could write a prescription it would be to chill out and watch "Breakfast Club". Even normal people have feelings.

[CraigMc]

cue...favorite 80's anthem here

{ }

Preferably something from the Smiths...

[Hils]

Normalcy is merely a perception, depending on the perceiver. Also being relevant to what the perceivers perceive to be normal. In actuality I don't even believe in reality, that also is a perception.

[CraigMc]

In actuality I don't even believe in reality, that also is a perception.

...aahh I'll have what he's having

[Redwolf]

On 2003-02-03 13:39, Hils wrote:
Normalcy is merely a perception, depending on the perceiver. Also being relevant to what the perceivers perceive to be normal. In actuality I don't even believe in reality, that also is a perception.

Too true. I live in a community where much that others might consider "weird" is perfectly "normal"...so much so, that we don't even notice it unless we're entertaining visitors from elsewhere.

A while back, our young nephew from Michigan visited us, and we took him downtown. After we'd walked around for a bit, I looked at him and realized that he was REALLY uncomfortable and nervous...not sure where to look. I looked around, trying to see Santa Cruz through his eyes and figure out what was bothering him. The group of Ghost Mountain Riders sitting on their bikes outside Starbucks, sipping lattes and talking Hog? The gal in Rennaissance attire selling hemp bracelets on the corner? The old man who is a fixture in front of El Palomar, dressed in his signature black plastic trash bags and bedecked with signs proclaiming "There Is No God" and "Vote for me in 2004"? The guy with the purple mohawk drinking coffee in front of Santa Cruz Coffee Roasters? The fellow with the dreadlocks and the shortboard, peddling his beach cruiser down the street and yakking on a cell phone? The lesbian couple strolling hand-in-hand in front of Dakota? That's all just Santa Cruz...part of the landscape...and considerably more "normal" here than suits and ties. I remember my nephew was shocked when my daughter mentioned a friend of hers getting her hair dyed blue...he had been sent home from his middle school in Michigan for dying his hair scarlet on Halloween, and here Johanna was talking about elementary school kids dying their hair "weird" colors as if it were perfectly normal! (which it is...several of my students sport "unnatural" hair colors). He even found the atmosphere up here in Mount Hermon (the Christian conference center where we live) unsettling...people praying together outside the post office as if the whole world couldn't see them! But heck...that's just the way it is here...it's "normal."

I know that, in a lot of cases, people act or dress differently just for the shock value, or to draw attention to themselves, but in Santa Cruz, it's just part of the culture...frankly, we're awfully hard to shock!

Redwolf

[Hils]

I must live in a very "normal" village/town then. All we have had is someone who's name I won't mention playing her fiddle on the roof of the band shell and a Mountie saying,"Come on down the Jigs up" It was a promotional for the Fiddle Fest but still....We had an old guy who had a compultional disorder and took 3 steps forward and one back even crossing the road. The Christmas Light Up (melt down) parade. Santa was on the fire truck and the Mounties were leading the parade. All of a sudden, the fire siren sounded, off went the Fire trucks and the Mounties and Santa was left in the street. Then all the Christmas lights went out, some car had hit a power pole. Our band was in the parade so we sat around for a while playing music in the dark. We had a hermit who was a squatter in the forest and turned it into the most beautiful park you ever saw while he lived in an old lean to he had put together until the Kinsmen donated a small trailer for him. The whole town new he was there but it was one of those, "Well kept secrets" since squatting is illegal. After he passed away the town took over the upkeep and it's now called, "The Hermit Trails." Yeah pretty normal place I would say.

[markv]

Walden,

I do apologize for my comment about being from the only state that Arkansas can make fun of.

I guess the old Husker vs. Sooner rivalry thing from College days takes over.

Truly though, no offense was meant. You are the epitome of normalcy and a beautifull human being with a heart and sense of humor to match.

Mark V.

[Nanohedron]

I see these parameters as arising out of fear: fear of the unexpected on one hand, fear of crushing anonymity on the other. A bit simplistic, perhaps, but that's me tuppence fer ye.

N, weirdly normal

[Walden]

On 2003-02-03 17:37, markv wrote:
I guess the old Husker vs. Sooner rivalry thing from College days takes over.

I graduated from the University of Nebraska--Lincoln Independent Study High School, myself.