Embracing The Strange.
I try to copy the bird’s tune by whistling it. My dog looks up at me tilting its head. Every morning now for a week I hear the same little tune coming from a bird outside the bathroom window. The tune has four notes. If I knew more about music – four years of classical guitar didn’t seem to help – I could tell you what notes they are. But to try and describe it to you; it’s a low note followed by. a high note then back to a lowish note then a much lower note to end. The rhythm is undulating. Can you hear it? It’s delightful and particular and I try to imitate it by whistling the lyrical phrase. It makes me wonder about the uniqueness of things, and the opposite – blandness.
I read an article recently that lamented the disappearance of the English eccentric. Oddness, being eccentric, and the edges of our culture are slowly evaporating and white-washing brushes over our lives.
Today, people learn early to smooth their own edges, to translate interests into identities, hobbies into side hustles, curiosity into content. The modern cult of individuality has produced so few true eccentrics. To call yourself an eccentric, to present it as an identity, is already to misunderstand the thing itself. The internet has accelerated this misunderstanding to the point of extinction. Online, every interest is instantly contextualised, aestheticised and monetised. There are no obscure fascinations, only underdeveloped niches
Even when we do try to identify and engage the edges of culture, they are packaged for our consumption, making the sometimes roughness, prickliness or sharpness of edges more palatable for the average consumer. And so everything does indeed become the same, taking on a similar sheen.
This is not only boring, but dangerous as we become less and less tolerant of alternate thinking, different views and people who don’t seem to “be like us.”
And yet we see it in all aspects of society – religion, politics, societal settings. One activist I was listening to was reflecting in an interview that people today refuse to join groups with a common goal unless everyone thinks the same. We all know of political groups or others who refuse to work together, even though they want the same things, because they have different political or religious views. But how much better would it be if we worked together despite our different views, especially if we want the same outcome – the common good?
Can we stop the edges from disappearing? As our culture moves increasingly towards uniformity, can we escape the powerful machinations that turn all things into a reflection of the same? How do we remain open and unafraid of The Strange?
I don’t have answers but one thing I will do is keep listening to the particular and peculiar; simple tunes of the offbeat and eccentric in my life, like this little bird outside my window who might give me some kind of answer.
Rev. Dr Karina Kreminski, Mission Catalyst – Formation and Fresh Expressions, Uniting Mission and Education. Karina also blogs at An Ordinary Mystic.
