Idiosyncracies...

Silence
Odilon Redon
1912
Museum of Modern Art, New York

My mother always used to say, "No one is perfect except for me and thee, and I'm not so sure about thee." Well, I know I'm certainly not perfect -- I'm far from it, in fact.  But haven't you always noticed that the most interesting people are the ones who are slightly quirky?  I have met folks who seem to be perfect and flawless in every way, and they're intimidating.  However, once they reveal a quirk or an eccentricity, suddenly they become much more likeable and endearing.  A piece of the armor falls away, et voila, they are human after all.  By the same token, once I am able to see other folks' indiosyncracies, I don't feel quite so bad about mine.  We all have them, and more often than not our idiosyncracies are similar rather than strange.  We can identify with each other's quirks and foibles, and often they are a common thread that binds us together.

"You do that too?  Oh, gosh, so do I...!"

So here, just to make you feel good about yourself, are a few of my idiosyncracies.

1.  I love the sound of silence.  Unless a piece of music is really worth listening to, I can't bear having a radio or a television on for "background" noise.  I grew up in a noisy home, I work in a noisy office, and I cherish the sound of silence.  Silence is like a spa for my ears, it refreshes them.  Silence can make all the other senses feel heightened, especially the visual sense.

2.  When I come home from work at the end of the day, I always have a hot soapy shower to wash off the flotsam and jetsam of the day -- especially if I have had to use a "public facility".  I'm not exactly a germaphobe, but there is nothing more refreshing than feeling clean.

3.  This is beginning more and more to sound like a case description of someone with OCD ... but I love tidy cupboards.  When I was 12 years old, I got up one morning and looked at my messy bedroom.  There were clothes and books everywhere.  My mother had gone to a lot of trouble to create a pretty bedroom for me, and it was a mess.  At that moment I decided to tidy it up.  I hung up my clothes, straightened my books, made my bed, and realized it felt wonderful to have "a place for everything, and everything in its place..."

Nuttier than a fruitcake, you say?  Are you feeling better yet?

4.  I'm not superstitious about most things.  I find most superstitions are just silly.  What on earth can happen if you open an umbrella indoors?  Nothing.  Or if you step on a crack on the sidewalk?  It doesn't really break your mother's back.  But there is one superstition that I take very, very seriously.  When I am getting dressed in the morning, if I inadvertently put my underwear on inside out, it stays on -- inside out -- all day.  Don't ask me why.  What would happen if I changed it?  Oh, I don't know -- the earth would tilt on its axis, the sun would turn into a supernova -- I'm not willing to find out.

I have, oh , about a million other idiosyncracies, but this post would start to get too long if I listed them all here.  Besides, you folks are all exactly the same, right?  Nothing new here ... right?