Weird is a weird word. It means odd, strange, different from normal. But it wasn't always like that. For over a thousand years, the idea behind weird (originally wyrd) was 'stuff that happens', something mysterious controlled by Fate. It was a way of talking about the future. In modern German it's still used for that: 'es wird regnen' means 'it's going to rain'. Even in English dialects (mostly in Scotland) it's still possible to say 'dree your weird' and be understood to mean 'endure your fate'.

Only in the last 200 years has weird acquired the negative sense of different = bad. (The shift of meaning seems to have had something to do with the theatrical portrayal of the 'weird sisters' in Shakespeare's Macbeth.) Perhaps we should try to recover something of the old idea that 'weird happens' – unusual maybe – but not necessarily bad. Doing something weird involves taking a risk but it can be wonderful. Some of the great discoveries of science were made by seriously weird people. The same can be said for great works of art and literature.

Of course, many weird things are worthless. But this must not discourage us away from weird. This is the evolutionary principle: weird happens and sometimes becomes the breakthrough to a new future. You don't discover gold without shifting a load of dirt.