On Being All Weird
"Wherever we go, we are friends" -Sloth and Manatee
Sloth and Manatee
Captain Picard:
Well, then, um... what did you do for your science projects?
Patterson Supera:
I planted radishes in this special dirt, and they came up all weird.
Captain Picard:
I see. That's very... very commendable.
We’re surrounded by so many different creatures and plants and ways of getting around. How come, then, when we think of people, the conversation seems to bend toward normal-vs.-not, or what to do when people end up ‘outside’ of what one is ‘supposed’ to be. Are you ‘typical,’ or ‘divergent?’ Like is there a special room where we keep this officially ‘normal’ person that we are all calibrated to, like Greenwich Mean Time or something?
Or is it that actually we are all all weird?
What must it have been like to survive in the natural world as a little tribal animal biped thing?
Say you’re a group of hominids or whatever in a grassland dotted with deposits of trees. You need some folks who are strong and aggressive to go hunt stuff that tends to run away. You need some fellows who are good at preparing and cooking things. And some who are good at caring and repairing. You also need some folks who notice everything going on around, like the change in the weather and that there are fewer buffalo this year and what is that in that tree. You’d need folks who are good at getting around, and good at making things out of other things.
All these various types have to interact with each other. Sometimes you have to stow the aggressive part or the anxious part or the hyper-detailed part long enough to communicate. When the hunt is over, you stop hunting and maybe discuss. Or clean up. Or whatever.
One of those skills you need is the glue-person/people. The ones who bring people together, giving everyone a sense of belonging. Tell stories. Mediate conflicts. Stuff like that.
Our modern built/made environment seems to have made a hierarchy of all the various traits. Aggression at the top, caring at the bottom. Loud at the top, quiet at the bottom. Acquisitive at the top, giving at the bottom. Individual at top, glue person at bottom.
We’ve also apparently decided that a ‘successful’ person has to glom together a bunch of unrelated traits within themselves, rather than knowing how to identify them in others. How did we get to that point? That actually does seem weird. Like trying to play tennis in a hippo enclosure*.
I mean duh, it’s money. The answer is money. Money is made through separating and shrink-wrapping and sticking a price tag on. No news there. The shrink-wrap, one might think of as individualism. Better to sell a lawnmower to every house on the block than have one that everybody uses. More sales, you see.
But it sure seems like we need all the weirdos in order to function. Having someone around with a busy brain that notices stuff is very valuable, as is someone who can anticipate circumstances, or someone who is detail-oriented and cares a lot. Unfortunately, aggression and acquisitiveness seem to take all the cake all the time. Aggressive is aggressive, and so it - gets aggressive all over everybody. Ew.
The glue part makes all us weirdos go. We’ve built a world environment that’s gotten misdirected into individual people/products/bank accounts, when what it needs is more Universal Glue - UniGlue? There are lots of examples for inspiration. Schools, churches, inside jokes, front porches, movie nights, fun runs, museums, fandom, comic-cons… wouldn’t it be great to roll them up into a big Human language, a culture of cultures, where we are distinct but we also know How To Meet Each Other? UniGlue. MultiPass.
*I truly do not know where that expression came from
Brainwaves
Best of Brainwaves Volume One: The Fountain of Stuff
Best of Brainwaves Volume Two: Mom, Dad, I'm a Cat
License Cartoons from CartoonStock
Art!
Pretty accurate self-portrait, if I am being honest
BunnyFrogCatSnake
Things Of The Week
Mr. Rogers on the mad that you feel.
Kat Vellos is all about friendship and community and is a great follow.
Holy moly, the bead work in the art of Dyani White Hawk.
Okay! That's enough nonsense for now.
May you glue something together, may you care a lot and that’s okay, won't you be my neighbor? - Betsy
HELLO AND THANKS FOR READING!!
My website has more info, books, art, and whatnot
CartoonStock has gobs of cartoons to license