Be Weird
Look I know I’m weird. I like to use the word unique. I think differently, I do differently. I’m happy with that fact. In fact, there are times I wish I was weirder, more different than I actually am. I want to be inventive, create a new way to be.
But the truth is, I am human after all. I do a lot of the same old boring stuff that most people do. I even had to get a job, god forbid. I’m a writer, so working sometimes hurts my soul. But I do like teaching.
I like molding future brains. I want to teach kids how to think outside the box we were born in. Innovation and creativity is the basis of all life. Knowledge is useful and necessary, but invention and new thought is where it’s really at.
I was just watching a video on the beginnings of human beings. It is very interesting to see that we spent hundreds of thousands of years doing nothing new in particular. It is only in the last couple hundred years that innovation multiplied, innovation breads more innovation. It is only when we created new ideas and technology that the world started to really change.
And then I think there came a time in our evolution when we realized that meaning was the highest ideal of all. Artists, musicians, and poets have expressed this since the beginning of time. What are we living for? Why are we alive?
They say women value relationships above all else in life. I think there is something to that. I believe we are here to love. Love life, and each other. Loving a dog is something to live for. Loving your work. Loving your child. But most of all loving yourself.
I think we came on earth to experience all of this. The good, the bad, the ugly. The passion, the devastation, the ecstasy. And what a ride it is, isn’t it? Remember those moments when you were more than you thought you could be?
What are we after all? We learned how to think and then we took over the world. But what have we as a species done to this world? As we are inventing, we are also fighting in endless wars and polluting the natural environment. Is this what we were meant to do?
I guess whether or not this is the way it is supposed to be, it is the way it is. But along with inventing new robots and self-driving cars, perhaps we should invent a new way to be human. The way we are currently living is not sustainable. In fact, I read that the planet may not be inhabitable by as early as the year 2050 if we keep going at the pace that we are going at.
So where do we start to change the way we act on a broader level? It starts with belief. What do we believe is important? We seem to think that money is very important but have you really ever spent time with people with enormous amounts of cash. They are usually no happier, and usually more depressed than the rest of us.
Look, don’t get me wrong. I want to sell a million books and make a billion dollars. I’m not even exaggerating. But then what? I might have like a hundred houses and a private jet. What happens after that? I will probably start a substance abuse problem. I will probably alienate everyone in my life. I might even forget how to love.
What if instead, we thought differently. I mean there are those who are changing the idea of what it even means to be rich. Oprah and Bill and Melinda Gates have changed the standard of what the very wealthy can do with their money by starting amazing charitable ventures.
But most of us will not see a million dollars. Most of us are regular people, trying to survive. But what does it mean to survive? Again it’s about what we believe? Some of us are doing a job we hate in order to pay the bills because it would be too much of a risk to break boundaries and try to do what we love.
I gave up a lot of security to become a writer. I was originally going to be a lawyer. I may have become wealthy, but I know I would have been miserable. I’m not saying anything against lawyering if that is what you do, but it’s not what I love. I love this. Exchanging thoughts in words and in discussions with students.
What if you could make what you love work for you financially? I decided to become a professor, it’s not a bad profession. I was privileged enough to get a Master’s Degree that is accepted in Academia as equivalent to a Ph.D. A Masters in Fine Arts is considered a terminal degree because there was no Ph.D. in fiction writing at the time I was going to school. I am very lucky, I realize that.
But I also had some horrible setbacks because of an illness. So here I am, much recovered from my illness and ready to recreate my life. But I am thinking I don’t want to be like everyone else. I never did. I don’t want just a job. I want a lifestyle in which I’m happy.
Maybe I can create online, interactive courses, that I can teach and make my own career. Of course, I want to teach writing, but I also want to teach spirituality. I think that all art starts from connection with our spirit. I think that is where all life begins.
I think all work is art. I remember I had a dentist one time who was so passionate about this wire he put in my mouth, he was so excited about it and I really respected the fact that there was something that made him so happy. If a little piece of wire is what moves you then go with it. Go with who you are.
Be.
Find yourself and be that.
Be weird.
nina