...the first principal of Shambhala vision is not being afraid of who you are. Ultimately, that is the definition of bravery: not being afraid of yourself. - Chogyam Trungpa, Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior

I am raising weird kids, thanks be to God. Better an ostracized delight than a bland l'il drone.

As a devout man, I could easily fall for narrow paths and salvation awards. But face it: Moses was weird. Jesus was weird. Buddha? Vishnu? Mohammed? Joseph Smith? All decidedly strange, my friend. Gandhi? Plato? Aquinas? Lincoln? Jefferson? I bet none of them could get a date for the prom. Sadly, our beautiful religions, brilliant universities, and shining nations are often hijacked by myopic bean counters who choose seamless institutions over the grit of free thought. They often train young parents to do the same.

This is the point in the article where I trot out names like Edison, Einstein, Picasso, Beethoven, and Tharp, right? Rather, I will trot out the realization that the world is stuffed with nameless billions of tethered minds, each of whom would be the next paradigm-shattering genius in some facet of life, if only parents, peers, teachers, gurus, and political leaders would open eyes, relax grip and embrace weird. Part of what makes an innovator great is an environment that gives them permission to fail repeatedly in spectacular fashion.

So let your kid follow that muse down a thousand dead ends. Let your significant other funk up the neighborhood. Let yourself go, too. Love might make the world go round, but weird makes the world wake up. Tell me, which do we need most right now?