Blog15. Behind the Name Part I

Links between kooks and the deranged, unhinged, and the idiot are common. Yet the term can also soften a bit describing an odd outlook, weird obsessions, or unconventional character traits. You know, the interesting pieces of ourselves and what intrigues us about others. A small leap from this point, and a fundamental idea behind the Kook Jester Show, suggests that when you tap your inner ‘kookiness’, a fascinating life journey may await you. However, it requires courage. As in order to forge your own path, you must detach from the crowd, an especially difficult yet important thing for young people to do.

Productive kooks do not oppose convention merely to be contrary. Instead, choices on career options or university study are based on internally motivated desires and a strong enough curiosity to pursue those desires. Easy to say; tough to do. Our ingrained survival mechanisms keep us clustered around accepted norms. Declarations to be lawyers are rarely questioned, whereas ones to be playwrights or wildlife photographers might be. To get started, ask what makes you weird, what you enjoy, and what you’re good at. Those are clues.

Kooks are generally comfortable in their own clumsiness. Pick any skill or field of study. Chances are you will absolutely suck at it on your first try. Surfing offers a good example, a sport where ‘the kook’ is woven into the lexicon, classifying anything from a newbie surfer to one with complete disregard for everyone else on the waves. But surfers get it. The sport takes a lifetime to master.

No matter your field once you choose to leave the beginner zone into unbroken waters, you instantly become a kook. Your ‘ocean’ suddenly gets mean and the encouraging smiles and ‘dope ride bro’ from instructors are replaced by disdainful looks and avoidance by those more seasoned than you. This is normal. Your inexperience makes you unpredictable and a potential liability. Then bit by bit as your skills and water sense expands, you earn your place. Remember this too: all great surgeons start out with shaky hands and clipping arteries. But they keep scrubbing in.

Get after your kookiness!