đ© TREE 412: The law of weird attraction
One.
The other day, I told Christine my idea for yesterdayâs post. She pointed out that people are attracted to each otherâs weirdness, not their normalcy. Moth enthusiasts hang out together because of their love of lepidopterology, not because they like ice cream or Love Island.
When my oldest daughter started high school, she was in a group of friends, people she knew from primary school and a few others. Not far into their high school career, most of the girls in that group became obsessed with being normal. Their main source of conversational amusement was making fun of people who werenât ânormalâ. They were tedious and mean. My daughter ditched that group of friends.
When people hide their weirdness and try to seem normal, they suppress the most interesting and attractive parts of themselves. Instead of hiding your interesting and attractive self, I suggest following the wisdom of Shrek the Musical: âLet your freak flag flyâ. It will attract the right people.
Two.
Weird attraction.
Three.
Rob Bell, on his podcast, told about how his friend in a band said, You know what is one of the greatest songs of all time? Easy Lover by Philip Bailey and Phil Collins. So I listened to it properly. I donât know if I would say one of the greatest but it is extremely good. The pre-chorus is sublime.
Hereâs a little more riffing in a similar direction from Nick Cave, if youâre interested.
Grow slowly
Jeff
I'll never forget a hair salon manager I worked with when I was 17. He was gifted with making his clients look amazing...even if they had twenty hairs on their heads.
He peered closely at me, and then said, "Your eyebrows! They grow across the middle! Grow them out!" He could find the one thing that was Different, and see it as positive and mostly Fun! And then he'd spread courage.
Thank you for this, and here's to the memory of Larry!
I love this - and needed to hear it! Thank you.