TRYING2️⃣UNDERSTAND
Welcome to the World of Weird
Interesting | Possible | Unbelievable | Exciting | Achievable | Untamable
Those are the words that often accompany the weird. We all crave for and want something special in our lives. But we always shudder at a thought of doing something of a kind.
Special is an anomaly by definition. If you want to attract anomalies, you have to open yourself to them. Gary Vaynerchuck described that with his profound common sense.
“If you want to be an anomaly, act like one. People want all these special things to happen to them but they are acting like everybody else.” — Gary Vaynerchuck
A chilling morning run
I love chilling early morning runs. Windy with freezing temperatures and snow feels good to start a day. It always surprises me how hard it is to make myself go running in such conditions. But every time, it proves to be a wildly better experience than the usual.
When I return from a run, I undress outside on our rooftop veranda to leave my clothes outside to air and dry out. Today, our neighbor was at the open window, smoking a cigarette.
She saw me outside and shrugged, seeing me barefoot and in my underpants. “How can you undress outside in such harsh temperatures? Don’t you think it’s a little weird, a bit crazy?”
I thought about asking her why that seemed weird to her. Is it because I am not like her or because I am doing something she does not understand? Isn’t it easy to judge when you don’t understand someone?
I knew arguing about that would lead me nowhere. So I replied in a less disturbing but yet a little provocative way:
“I feel good doing weird things sometimes. I am used to undressing outside in the cold. That should not be an issue if you fancy a swim in a freezing lake.”
Adaptability
The human body has a remarkable property. It tends to adapt to the requirements of the environment. But that is a double-edged sword. It adjusts in both ways.
Your body supplies the energy and nutrients to body parts and organs that perform their function. When they strain, they strengthen. When they loosen, they start to atrophy.
Hmm, that sounds like frequency. Smaller deviations are more desirable. But to keep your body in function, those still need to occur. To keep deviating and preserving the flow.
The same is with your adaptability to environmental factors. The more you avoid deviations, the harder it is for you to cope with them. Your definitions of extreme also change.
More often, you use the air conditioner to avoid the summer heat, the hotter it feels. The more you avoid cold freezing temperatures, the colder it feels.
You lose the ability to cope with the extremes. Think about that when you turn on your air conditioner. The air conditioner does not help you adapt to the environment. It allows you to adjust the environment to your needs.
I went inside to take a shower, and I thought about that conversation.
What does weird mean?
Is it abnormal? Yup, thank goodness it is! Do I consider myself weird? I hope to qualify. After all, I am happily testing and trying-out all things that seem weird or impossible. Am I abnormal? I try my best to be.
Who wants to be normal nowadays? Check the news and people around you. You know what normal means? The majority. And I do not want to be like the majority.
I do not want to do what the majority does. I do not want to eat what the majority does. I do not want to go where the majority does. I do not want to think as the majority does.
Call me crazy if you want to. But I’ll only thank you for it.
What’s weird about weird?
What about weird? Weird is good, and I love everything about it. It makes me different and open to better possibilities. I embrace it, while most people around me ‘want the gain, but not the pain’ (any kind of it, actually).
Anything weird that I encountered so far made my life more fascinating. I am not referring to life-threatening, dangerous, and reckless situations. I always try to do some research and judgment before taking a bold experiment.
But those weird things I did only made me more insightful. It is all about researching stuff on my own, using my sense and recognition. And not to trust gullibly to anything I see or read.
There is a priceless passage from Robert Greene’s book 50th Law:
»Everyone in the world is governed by self-interest. People naturally think first of themselves and their agendas. An occasional affectionate or helpful gesture from people you know tends to cloud this reality and make you expect more of this support — until you are disappointed, again and again.
You are more alone than you imagine. This should not be a source of fear but of freedom. When you prove to yourself that you can get things on your own, then you experience a sense of liberation. You are no longer waiting for people to do this or that for you (a frustrating and infuriating experience). You have confidence that you can manage any adverse situation on your own.«
A weird conclusion
WOW! I just found another weird thing. Posting my articles on MEDIUM gets me no comments. Do you know what is weird about that?
I don’t like to read (and watch) any local online news. Those are full of so much rage and intolerance — especially the comments section. Everyone wants to be the smartest person in the room. And they do not tolerate anyone with a different opinion or mind.
Damn it, David and Justin. Right you are, again! 😁
I don’t even think about posting my articles on FB or at some local online publication. If I did, I would get a massive instant shower of violent raging comments.
Only the first few about the topic, though. The rest would be infinite mean angry judgments. Likely about the previous comment or something that had nothing with the article at all.
Comments of the Majority
Jim Carrey once said:
What do I want? Comments to see what the majority thinks of me? I guess I can pass that too, thank you. I tend not to care anymore (still learning, though).
Remember — anyone can know. But the point is to understand. Even when disagreeing with another person’s view, we can take something valuable out of it.
Thank you for your time and any comments you might want to share.