By Mark Powers
That’s how we say it in the mountains. But regardless how you say it, no one is allowed to call themselves normal anymore.
Last week, The Free Press ran an article by Freya India entitled Nobody Has a Personality Anymore. She says, “My generation is obsessed with treating every trait as a symptom of a disorder.” Go here to read her article: https://www.thefp.com/p/nobody-has-a-personality-anymore-culture-internet-society. I recommend it to you.
I agree with her assessment. So here is my ‘mountain man’ take on this syndrome.
Rarely in the old days did we consider anyone abnormal. Instead, we were all accepted as individuals with distinct personalities: normal but QUIRKY. What a great word. Quirky means you are unconventional in an interesting way. And hey, aren’t we all?
But then, social scientists developed all kinds of personality inventories to help us assign names to all our quirks. Believe me, I have used and recommended many personality assessments and find them helpful… when taken with a grain of salt. But, as is often the case in America, we just don’t know where to stop. We tend to go overboard, don’t we? Now, we’re fretting to death trying to piece together the puzzle of our personality with a hundred labels for our quirks.
Here are a few I find prevalent all around me, and in me:
Quirky = “I’m a grouch sometimes.” — Disorder = “I have deep-seated anger issues.”
Quirky = “I’m just a forgetful old coot.” — Disorder = “I have early onset dementia.”
Quirky = “I’m easily (look, a squirrel) distracted.” — Disorder = “I’m severely ADHD.”
Quirky = “I’m really interested in people.” — Disorder = “I’m unable to set boundaries.”
Quirky = “I love to poke fun at people.” — Disorder = “I create barriers to relationships.”
Quirky = “I love to take care of people.” — Disorder = “I’m co-dependent.”
Quirky = “I love being in love.” — Disorder = “I’m desperately needy.”
Quirky = “I work hard to accomplish things.” — Disorder = “I’m neurotically ambitious.”
Quirky = “I’m shy and introverted.” — Disorder = “I have dis-associative syndrome.”
Quirky = “I pay close attention to detail.” — Disorder = “I’m Obsessive Compulsive.”
Notice how the “Disorders” take characteristics that may be positive or negative and redefine them as something seriously bad. It truly seems there ain’t nobody normal no more. We just trot out our list of disorders to explain our abnormalities. We’ve all gone from interesting to insufficient. Is this who we really are? Is this even helpful?
STOP IT! Don’t do this to yourself. (NOTE: Please understand, I am not making a case against genuine diagnosis and treatment of real mental health issues. Mental illness is very real and very serious.)
So, what if… maybe, just maybe… God allows this scientific self-analysis to turn us back to Him? After all, God didn’t give us the TEN COMMANDMENTS so we could achieve perfection. Nope. Don’t you understand that we, as humans, are incapable of fulfilling even half of God’s Commandments? So, God gave the LAW to show us how much we need His GRACE and MERCY. In the same way, our inability to perfectly label our personality traits actually DRIVES us to the One who made us quirky.
Don’t believe it? Try this on for size: Psalm 139:13-16, 23-24 (NKJV)
For You formed my inward parts;
You covered me in my mother’s womb.
I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.
My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me and know my anxieties;
24 And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.
God treasures you, quirks and all. Allow yourself to be quirky. (Just don’t let it be an excuse for wickedness.)
Hey, wanna catch a glimpse of grace today? Look in the mirror.
P.S. Subscribe to my weekly blog *Glimpses of Grace* at www.MarkCharlesPowers.com and look for my novel “His Eyes” releasing in October.