All About You FRIDAY – Seek Your Freak

This is a story of my crazy mind. “What are you thinking about?” she asked. I was thinking about dancing at our wedding. But that was only for a second. Because right before that, I was thinking about reading a book, which led me to thinking about someone who reads books constantly, which led me to thinking about a future dinner date with said reader, which led me to thinking about food at our wedding…you get the idea. Though I tend to like order and pride myself in being able to organize even the messiest of rooms, my mind is like spaghetti.

It’s the reason why sometimes someone says something to me in passing and it seems I am ignoring them. “Did you hear what I just said?” someone will ask. I heard you say something but I was too busy thinking about how I never knew the lateral gastrocnemius was bipennate until this week and that bipennate reminds me of a leaf and I should eat a salad for lunch.

For most of the week, I thought today’s blog would be about public libraries. I was going to call it Check It Out, in reference to checking out a book. We had just eaten a fine meal over great conversation at a fine restaurant in town. “We should walk a little,” I said, “Work that meal off.” So we did. About a block.

“Want to know a secret?” she said. “I really love libraries.” So do I! And that was the end of our calorie burning walk, as we wandered into our city’s newly renovated public library.

Oh, the possibilities a library holds for a mind like mine! Years ago, I spent a lot of time in this library, hunkering down at a table forcing myself to focus on a pile of work. But what I really wanted to do was wander the aisles endlessly and read a paragraph or two from a hundred different books. Our library also has a creative lab complete with 3D printers and a sewing machine.

We each got a library card. And you should get one too. That was going to be the whole point of this week’s blog.

I checked out a book titled, “How to Stay Married: The Most Insane Love Story Ever Told” by Harrison Scott Key. I read the forward which led me to his TEDx talk, The Funny Thing About the American Dream.
“Everybody…teachers, coaches, parents…told me I could be anything I want,” he said, “I know they were just trying to inspire me, but telling a child they can be anything is not helpful. What they need is not self-confidence, but self-knowledge. They need to discover how weird they are. What all of us need to do is to find our inner freak…that cluster of talents that makes you the weirdo you are.“

And just like that, my blog became about something else.

You should get a library card and visit your local library. But more importantly, I hope you take a moment to unleash the weirdness inside that makes you unique. The little quirk that, if developed and set free, will one day lead to your American Dream. Let the world see that for a moment. Normal is way overrated.

It’s Friday and it’s been a long week. Don’t forget to celebrate.

Until next time…