WEIRD?!?!?!

Recently a friend of mine on Facebook posted this status update. “I remember when I was weird!!! No wait a minute I still am weird!!!” I found the status interesting and it got me to thinking. It turned out that it was actually a younger sibling that did the post and not the person whose name was attached to it. I found two things interesting about the status.

First of all on the internet when you see someone’s name attached to something (a statement, a picture, ect.) you assume it’s from them (or in the case of a picture that it is them). Well as evidenced by this status situation what you read may not have actually come from that person. Especially if it isn’t something as secure as Facebook or Twitter (but even those are not hacker proof). So on the one hand you can’t guarantee that just because someone’s name is attached to something that it actually came from them. But on the other hand a person may write something under a pen name. Basically they’re not pretending to be someone else but just pretending not to be who they are. So I guess to summarize I would say that if you read something by someone that doesn’t seem consistent with their character you should not jump to conclusions. Instead you should directly contact them to verify the statement. So you may ask why would someone do that and be deceitful? That takes us to the second thing I found interesting about the status on Facebook.

What is the definition of weird? Now I didn’t go to Webster to find the answer but I would say this. If you think of someone as weird really what you are saying is that they are different from the people that you are used to. Specifically what you are saying is that they are different from you or what you think they should be. So the term “weird” is really a matter of opinion. I may think of a person as “weird” but then you might find them perfectly normal (and me really “weird”). There was a short film I head of awhile back that had a plot like this. Two individuals are seeking help because they have ugly faces. The doctors they go to see feel sorry for them but despite the numerous surgeries they attempt to perform they are unable to make their faces look normal. Finally, since these two do not fit in and are not accepted anywhere they go, the doctors come up with a plan. They have heard of another country where people, that look like these two, live. So they arrange to fly them there. Now throughout the film you are never shown anyone’s face. But in the last scene as the two people are thanking the doctors and saying goodbye it shows their faces. And the two people with “ugly” faces are really models. And all the doctors have, what we would call, “ugly” faces. It’s all a matter of opinion.

So how do these two tie together? Why would someone want to take on a different identity online? Because they think that they are “weird”. Perhaps they don’t fit in with those they associate with and have few friends. But online they can be absolutely amazing and have a lot of friends. I heard a song in the store recently. The main line of the song was “I’m so much cooler online”. From what I heard the guy didn’t “fit in”, was short and overweight. But as he says in the song “I grow a foot and lose some weight every tome that I log in”. In this day and age you can be whoever you want to be… online.

So how does this apply to us? Well I would say that we should be content with how God has made us. We should not always strive to “fit in”. Cause I know this will be a big surprise for you, but no two people are the same. I think it would be impossible to find two people who think exactly the same about everything. So live for God and seek to please Him, and He will take care of everyone else. Another thing is we should be careful not to judge others for things they cannot change. We can judge their character but not those aspects they have no ability to change. “You were made to fill a purpose that only you could do, and there could never be a more beautiful you.”

Yours truly,
Daniel Turack

PS. And yes it is really me and not someone posting for me. And yes that is my real name. But I still could just be saying this so I don’t know why I’m even bothering.