Celebrate weirdness!

Laura blowing bubbles at my wedding in Alaska.

From my surrogate mom, Laura Bernstein:

I add my enthusiastic voice to this blog, saluting Janet on what would have been her 67th earthly birthday. She was an inspiring friend and a beautiful human being. Our relationship enriched my life in more ways than I can enumerate. One huge way is the presence of her daughter Sarah in my life as a "surrogate daughter" after Janet's passing. Thank you, Janet, for all your gifts! Now I would like to share a poem I wrote years ago (part of the original book) that Janet enjoyed so much, entitled "To My Children":

TO MY CHILDREN

Celebrate weirdness!
Wine it and dine it.
Design it to fit the occasion.
Rise to it.
Deny those who try to decry it with scornful remarks and limited vision.

Elevate eccentricity!
Beware the constricting, confining, conventional congress of head shakers, heart breakers, nay sayers, soul slayers.
Dare to be different.
Delight in it.
Heighten it.
Make it your home.

Applaud anomalies!
Anchor your ship in the singular sea of uncertainty.
Savor the strangeness.
Arrange bliss in whimsical patterns-- Irregular, quirky, quite murky to those who are closed to outlandish enchantments.

Cultivate non-conformity!
Be weirdly-wise with each enterprise.
Shrink from stale definitions and pale reflections and pallid convictions.
Relish exotic delicacies of expanded views.
Tempt your palate with spicy spaciousness.

Celebrate weirdness!
Walk the wide path of surprises.
Hope rises above the horizon of those who despise it; who narrowly cut down to size every dream-seeking, scheme-speaking lover of mystery.

--Laura Bernstein