Eccentric

 Sometimes a phrase will just pop into my head and catch my attention. One such phrase did just that yesterday. As I was sitting at my computer desk I looked at the pictures on my wall, the actual wall, not a facebook page. geez the things we have to explain nowadays, I thought I am gathering the past around me. My desk sits in the corner and both walls are covered with old photographs. Most are black and white but there is a sprinkling of color. Faces both familiar, and not, stare back at me. It is an equal mix between the living and the dead. That is my past and yours too. A mixture of what was and what is. I find the past to be far more comfortable. For the most part everything was black and white. You knew exactly what was expected and accepted ! Those that lived outside those boundaries were eccentric. It is becoming increasingly apparent that the longer you live you will become eccentric yourself ! That is to say, knocked out of the concentric circle you used to revolve in. The world changes and it can be disturbing.

 I have gathered my past around me and feel like I need to make a statement of some sort. I'm not certain what it is I want to say. I sit at this keyboard most every morning writing my thoughts about something. Sometimes I have something to say and at others I just ramble on. There are moments when I look at those pictures on the wall and realize one day I won't have a  have a voice at all. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but those words only spring from the imagination of the author. They are not the words of the pictured. Those pictures serve as inspiration and an imagining of the times that have been. Pictures capture what was, and memories are a comfort. That is so because memories do not disappoint, they are what is expected and anticipated. There really is no promise that tomorrow will be as kind.

 It is my feeling that I am the one that is centered and others are revolving around me. That is typical of humans, the world revolves around them. We all tend to believe the world revolves around us, to a point anyway. When the majority begins to circle us in a fashion we do not understand or agree with we become uncomfortable. Those around us become "eccentric" as compared to our own concentricity. It is others that are wrong. It is others that are operating outside the circle. When this begins to happen in an ever widening circle a deep unrest is created. I am feeling that unrest now. I expect the feeling will pass and a new circle will be formed. I am not inflexible but less likely to change than I was thirty years ago. My concern with the perceptions of others is less of an influence today than it was then. That is another product of age. Eccentric ? No, I haven't reached that stage at all, although I could see myself becoming so. Strange thing about being eccentric, it is acceptable if you are wealthy, not so much if you are not. But that seems to be changing as " eccentric " behavior is becoming the norm. Of course that is just my perception.