“Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.” (Matthew 16:22)
There’s another topic I had planned for today, which I may get to another time; but right now I have an urgency to ask for some feedback from my readers...those who know me well, those who know me casually, and even those who don’t know me in person but have only “met” me through this blog.
Over the past seven weeks or so, three people have bluntly and strongly (and unexpectedly) told me I should stop describing myself as “eccentric”. (Well, actually, it would be FOUR people if I count a guy last week who out of the blue recommended a better descriptive word for me, and it’s such a huge fifty dollar word that I FORGOT what it is!) Today’s was LEAST expected and came from someone I have a lot of respect for. He believes when I call myself “eccentric” I’m demaning myself in an inappropriate manner.
I explained to him that while the word “eccentric” HAS often come to have a very negative connotation, that’s actually NOT the original meaning of the word. The word means, “out of the center, or outside of the center”, or as I like to say, “outside of the circle”. I told him that when I describe myself as “eccentric”, I don’t mean I’m standing in the middle of traffic drooling all over myself and trying to wash people’s windows with a squeegee. Nor do I mean I’m dressed up like Rudy Valley in a mink coat and 1920s attire, with the heat of my house turned up to 90 while it’s in fact 85 degrees and humid outdoors. I realize we DO often think of that kind of stuff when we think of “eccentric” people! I told the guy today that when I say I’m “eccentric” I’m saying I march to the beat of a different drummer...that I’m DIFFERENT...that I don’t think or act the way most other people do. One of the dictionary’s definitions of “eccentric” is “unconventional” and I’m definitely unconventional! I also (tongue-in-cheek) sometimes describe myself as “weird”. In comparison to the typical 50ish Assemblies of God minister, or even the typical 50ish white collar American male, I AM (tongue-in-cheek) a little weird and eccentric.
For years I looked for a term to describe who and what I am. Around five years ago, I began describing myself as “eccentric” due to the reasons I’m stating here. I’ve been comfortable with that. As you know, I describe myself on this blog as eccentric. As I see it, I kind of have a “schtick”. Well, there’s another word...”schtick”. That’s a Yiddish term. I’d have to have my friend Don Splansky, Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Beth Am, define that if I really want accuracy, but I guess I’d say a schtick is kind of a behavior, a way of doing things, a manner, and it includes personality, characteristics, eccentricities (there we go!) and so forth. I have a schtick the way someone like Andy Rooney has a schtick or the way someone like Jack Benny had a schtick. For you evangelical Christians, I mentioned Mike Warnke in a recent posting and HE definitely has (had?) a schtick.
The unsolicited comments of three (or IS it four?) people over the past few weeks HAS got me thinking: IS it a bad thing to describe myself as eccentric? IS it a put down? Is it dishonoring to God? Is it dishonoring to my family? Is it dishonoring to the church I pastor? I’m not sure.
I DO know someone with a lot of wisdom that I know made a statement many years ago that I never forgot. It was about the name of a particular church which was a confusing and hard to understand name. The church’s pastor was ALWAYS having to explain what the name of his church meant. My wise friend said, “If you have to keep explaining a name then it’s not a good name.” The pastor of the church with the confusing name changed the name to something much better.
SHOULD I DROP THE “ECCENTRIC” DESCRIPTION? Then again, wasn’t it Shakespeare who said, “To thine own self be true.”? If I am, according to the correct and original description, “eccentric”, then what’s the big deal?
A lot of times I ask for comments and I get maybe 2 postings on the blog and maybe 1 or 2 e-mails and that’s it. (Sometimes, not even that much!) I’m really serious. As a famous female Boston media personality used to say, “I want you to weigh in on this!” I do. What do you think? What is your advice for me? Should I keep the description? Should I drop it?
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4 comments:
i think you should be able to describe yourself however you want to. i don't feel dishonored as a member of the family. we all know you're a little "out of the box" but who cares?
i looked up the word and it says "unconventional and slightly strange." honestly...that's what you are. i guess it's like the term "retarded" -- people think you say that word you automatically hate people with mental issues. eccentric has sort of got a bad rep of meaning o.c.d to the nth degree. i don't have a problem with the word, and i've never been offended by having you use it... though it's probably a matter of whether or not you wanna keep dealing with people telling you to change it.
when i see you say your eccentric, i'm like "haha, it's true." but i suppose if worse comes to worse, you could always just say you're "unconventional and slightly strange," which is the exact same thing, but you don't use the taboo word.
Im not sure if your eccentric or not, but when I think of eccentric I somehow think of Howard Hughes. Do you have long finger & toe nails and have an obsession with hand washing?
Since were are cousins and I know that I'm a little "out of the box" of being common, I like use the noun "Character" to describe myself. Wrap you brain around that as it too can be descriptive in many senses.
Wheter eccentric or a character you must be a good guy......... just beacuse!
Renee
Your usage of the word is correct. I know people seem to attach extreme conotations to it, but it only denotes what you said. Like those who say it's wrong to call people stupid, when really stupid just means "in a stupor" in which case ONLY people (not things, events or ideas) can be described as stupid.
I think you should be free to use "eccentric", but maybe it's best to search for a few other adjectives too, just so it's not your only go-to description. After all, as appropriate as it is, to some it might sound deprecating if used frequently. It's like if you're writing a paper and every other sentence starts with "Therefore..." That might be a perfectly legitimate, accurate, and appropriate word to use, but when it is used so many times, APPEARS overused. Here's a suggestion: try "enigmatic" every now and then. But no, don't eliminate the word entirely! Let's not hold the english language hostage over something so silly. To do so would just be, dare I say it, eccentric.
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