The Gifted Eccentric

Hansie Haier

What’s an eccentric? Does anyone really know? My pocket Webster’s mostly defines one by nots: “not having the same center ... not exactly circular ... not conventional.” And not cleanly defined. That’s an eccentric.

I suspect that’s how we prefer it. Definition, even as indefinable, is a sticky trap, viscous muck that dulls otherwise exquisite sensitivities. It blinds us to not-limited possibility, deafens us to the music of diversity, renders tasteless the flavors of life, numbs a million delights and intrigues, stifles, smothers, and kills. Yes, kills!

Do you know all that’s outside the boxes and circles and pigeon holes of life? Me neither really. But we eccentrics are bound more than most to find out. Our deepest need is to be more of who we’re born than whom others would shape us into. In some ways, our lives lived true are ultimate acts of faith. We trust in God, embrace the uniquenesses He gives us, and move on and out, focused, independent of the fuzzy, confining comforts of social inclusion.

I move through life mostly alone, my closest friend a happy little dog. Sometimes she seems my only friend, satisfied just to walk with me, never minding that we’re marching to odd drumbeats from within. Life can be lonely for eccentrics, but only when we buy the myth that we’re less than the conventional herd. Really we’re not less. We’re different, uniquely, wonderfully gifted with uniquely wonder-filled potential. How fortunate that never far from sight and reach are braver eccentrics than I, those who’ve seen the light, who faithfully choose their own true and passionate visions again and again! I wonder: Just how many discover from where come our inspired instincts, and how divine our individual lives are?

Some days, I don’t feel gifted. I forget and curse what, short-sighted, seems more a curse. But today I remember: What a gift it is to write strange insights, entirely my own, yet not. And today, surrounded by a few fellows also different, delightful, I am a truly gifted eccentric.

© June 26, 2003 Hansie Haier.