“We are all a little weird and life's a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.” ~ Theodor Seuss Geisel
I posted the above quote as my status on Facebook this morning, not knowing where it would take my thought process as the day moved forward. I posted it, simply because I have always had a great fondness of Theodor Geisel... Dr. Seuss to the literary world. I simply thought it was a pretty cool quote, nothing more. But within a few minutes my thoughts carried over to the (almost) 26 years I have been with my wife, Libby. Over the years, when talking about world events, local happenings, situations that have come up with people around us, one or the other of us have said something to the effect of, "what in the world is wrong with people?" I'm sure many others can relate to that statement of question. However, after many, many years of being together, I made a statement to Libby that we've often thrown back at one another ever since. The statement was this: "I've decided that it is not the world that is odd, it is us. We are not normal." It's the truth. We are not. We choose not to be. The world can go on at it's own pace, throwing all the rules away as they go; but we choose not to. We choose to live in a manner in which we offer respect, dignity, concern for others, compassion, preferring others while still respecting ourselves and our children.... I could go on, but the fact is, in the times we live in, this is not normal. We ARE the weird ones! That's OK... I found my weird partner, and I'm thankful to have my weird family and the love that we share. Just recently one of the teens in town told me that at a party, some of the girls were trashing other kids and one of them said of my kids, "they are both still virgins! Can you believe that? How weird is that?" And they all laughed. The one who told me this, said it with tears in her eyes and said, "I wish I could still boast of being a virgin." I'm thankful that my kids are "weird." I pray that they find their weird partners that Dr. Seuss spoke of in my quote above and they spend a lifetime of weirdness together.
The thing that brought all my thoughts together on this was when I read a note from a friend today that the former mayor of the town I lived in as a teenager had passed away. Bill was a really good man, who spent much of his life in selfless service to others. I had not seen Bill in many, many years. I decided to look up his obituary in my hometown paper. It was a lovely tribute written about him, but one thing jumped out at me. Bill had found his "weird partner" and married her on February 9, 1947. After 64 years of marriage, Lucy, his partner in weirdness died on August 19 of this year. When I read that, the thought hit me that for Bill, life was no longer enjoyable without his life-long partner in weird, so just 22 days later, Bill checked out too. I somehow love that.
