Thank You for Calling Me Weird, Karen

Let’s use the word weird to signify admiration and acceptance rather than derision and division.

Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash

A couple of months ago, I did something basically unheard of.

I took a walk.

Big deal, right?

Well, it was springtime during coronavirus, and the neighborhood was full of beautiful blooming flowers. When I go on walks, I like to admire my surroundings and record those moments for posterity.

I took photos of the flowers, trying to capture them at the right angle. The colors popped off the screen.

As I listened to a podcast while enjoying the sunny day, I heard a woman (let’s call her Karen, shall we?) say something to me while walking her dog.

Upon removing my headphones, I was greeted with the following shrill remark from Karen: “What are you doing?”

I said I was just taking pictures of the flowers. No harm, no foul, right?

Karen’s response? “I don’t know, it’s just weird.”

Being Weird is an Honor

Sean Kernan and Tim Denning have both written about the word ‘weird.’