Blessed Are the Weird People!

Posted on February 19, 2025 by mitchteemley

It was 1999 (as in “party like it’s…”). I was wearing khakis and a polo shirt, and was about to do a reading of my autobiographical poem Fool’s Odyssey for a room full of clove cigarette-smoking hipsters, identically clad in tight black clothes. I stepped up to the microphone and mumbled, “Sheesh, I feel so normal,” and they burst into applause. And then I knew I had them. Because I was, in fact, the weirdest person in the room.

“You are a chosen generation…a peculiar people, uniquely suited to show the goodness of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” ~1 Peter 2:9

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About mitchteemley

Writer, Filmmaker, Humorist, Thinker-about-stuffer
This entry was posted in Fool's Odyssey, Humor, Memoir, Poetry and tagged , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

56 Responses to Blessed Are the Weird People!

  1. kounselling says:
    February 19, 2025 at 11:35 am

    Good for you, Mitch

    Reply
  2. Frank Coats says:
    February 19, 2025 at 11:41 am

    Love this! The 1st Peter passage is one of my favorites – thanks, Mitch.

    Reply
  3. Nancy Homlitas says:
    February 19, 2025 at 12:04 pm

    What a great opening line-the opposite of what they would’ve anticipated. 🙂

    Reply
  4. Anne A. says:
    February 19, 2025 at 12:57 pm

    Love it! Those who cross cultures can identify… Blessings, brother.

    Reply
  5. atimetoshare.me says:
    February 19, 2025 at 1:20 pm

    I am proud to be one of the weird🥸

    Reply
  6. #hood says:
    February 19, 2025 at 1:53 pm

    are you ready to count to 99 antique works & others

    Reply
  7. Priscilla Bettis says:
    February 19, 2025 at 2:51 pm

    Love the verse and your clever take on it!

    Reply
  8. fiasco.gallery says:
    February 19, 2025 at 3:03 pm

    Do we call ourselves weird? Or are the people who call us weird weird? Who decides who is weird? I think it’s all just weird. But maybe I’m weird.

    Reply
  9. wGw says:
    February 19, 2025 at 3:39 pm

    “Nothing says ‘true outsider’ like khakis at a poetry reading—power move. You didn’t blend in, you *stood out*, and that’s peak hipster irony. Well played. 😂”

    Reply
  10. seekingdivineperspective says:
    February 19, 2025 at 3:39 pm

    As the late, great Erma Bombeck used to say, “‘Normal’ is a setting on your dryer.” 😏

    Reply
  11. Bookstooge says:
    February 19, 2025 at 3:45 pm

    Are hipsters going to heaven? Sounds like some obscure heresy to me! 😉

    Reply
  12. Phil Strawn says:
    February 19, 2025 at 5:16 pm

    Momo and I wandered into a hipster coffee shop off Sundance Square a few years back. The sign above the door read, ” The Doors of Perception,” I knew that book, and so did Jim Morrison. We figured it would be a cool and hip place to grab a cup and a pastry. Turned out it was about the weirdest place we had been.

    Reply
    • Ana Daksina says:
      February 20, 2025 at 10:50 pm

      In what ways was it weird?

      Reply
      • Phil Strawn says:
        February 21, 2025 at 7:06 am

        like Mitch in a Polo shirt and khakis, we were dressed in Texas western attire, boots, jeans etc. The fashion sense at that time, and for this particular coffee house, was Hipster chic for these folks. Puitting this into perspective, we wore bell bottom jeans, tie-dye shirts, Nehru jackets and long hair when we were that age, so we were considered weird at that time. Funny how we turn out when we age a bit. Fads are fleeting at best. I like Erma Bombecks point.

        Reply
        • mitchteemley says:
          February 21, 2025 at 6:33 pm

          Yep, the previous generation’s hip is the current generation’s “that’s so lame!”

          Reply
        • Ana Daksina says:
          February 21, 2025 at 7:05 pm

          I feel you completely. I don’t know anyone who dresses like I do, and I can’t make myself dress any other way. Even if the exigencies of life in a minivan didn’t dictate strict guidelines for practicality (not at all the practicality chosen by most, but it’s gotten me through public life in a half lotus position under atmospheric conditions ranging from 30 below to 120 above), I’m truly done with trying to please anyone but myself. What for? So they can laugh about a single thread hanging when they can’t find anything else? Let them laugh, at least, at who I really am, right?

          Reply
          • Phil Strawn says:
            February 22, 2025 at 1:05 pm

            That’s the right attitude to have. If you haven’t guessed, my blog is about Texas and the follies of us humans. I make fun at everything, but always with a bit of Christianity flavoring. Dress how you wish, and don’t let anyone dictate different. Me and Momo, my wife, are old geezers, and dress how we wish, mostly for comfort, but a bit of our own style.

            Reply
            • Ana Daksina says:
              February 22, 2025 at 1:50 pm

              Nice to have spokespeople in Texas! Easier to do what you do in, say, Austin than it would be in, say, Dallas!… For you I’m running my poem “Being Myself” today. Life’s too short not to dress up, and I say that as a homeless person who does anyway. Do enjoy, both the poem and your wonderful one another! 💖

              Reply
      • mitchteemley says:
        February 21, 2025 at 6:37 pm

        As in “the one who didn’t follow the unspoken dress code.”

        Reply
  13. noga noga says:
    February 19, 2025 at 6:36 pm

    An interesting post, well published, Honorable

    Reply
  14. Any Element says:
    February 19, 2025 at 6:50 pm

    The weird is always celebrated while the normal is casted aside

    Reply
  15. K.L. Hale says:
    February 19, 2025 at 6:58 pm

    Hey weirdo! God bless you! I’m in good company–a fellow “peculiar” person

    Reply
  16. Antique Works says:
    February 19, 2025 at 7:25 pm

    Amen!
    Not only are we fearfully and wonderfully made we all have gifts and talents that make us unique. Doing what we were created to do is a good thing.

    Reply
  17. ibarynt says:
    February 19, 2025 at 9:29 pm

    My family always said I’m the crazy one, my daughter says I’m weird, I know I am. I’ve never seen this Biblical perspective.
    A lovely post.

    Reply
  18. Yeah, Another Blogger says:
    February 20, 2025 at 8:57 am

    The quote on the blackboard is a very great one. It couldn’t be more true. Those people challenge and expand others’ minds and senses.

    Reply
  19. Ellie says:
    February 20, 2025 at 10:14 am

    😅😂🤣💯👍🏽

    Reply
  20. Bronlima says:
    February 21, 2025 at 9:20 pm

    Weird but cheered!

    Reply
  21. craig lock says:
    February 23, 2025 at 6:56 pm

    Blessed Are the Weird People
    + the Peace – makers, because they’ll inherit plenty of Frequent Flyer points! https://nz.pinterest.com/pin/743797694691254918/

    Reply
  22. Chagall says:
    February 26, 2025 at 9:54 am

    Reminiscent of Steve Jobs, here’s to the crazy ones.

    Reply
  23. Anonymous says:
    March 13, 2025 at 5:18 pm

    Being the picky soul that I am (yeah, weird, too), I have to point out pedantically that it should be “partying like it was 2000” since that was the last year of the 20th century, and 2001 the first year of the 21st century.

    Reply

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