PBP-E is for Eccentric or Weirdo?

Now this could apply to many different kinds of people, not just Pagans.  But let's look at types of Pagan people.  Many Pagans are just like anyone else you might see walking down the street.  There's nothing about them that screams their religion.  Go to a Pagan Pride Day event, and you will observe many people looking just like they would for any other public outing.  Then there are the moderates, people like me.  I seem pretty normal just walking down the street.  My personal style is only slightly unique, but in culturally acceptable norms.  For example, during the warmer months, I favor flowing skirts and tunic style tank tops.  But my top might be homemade and of a slightly sheer fabric, the kind that you would only notice if really paying attention.  And I usually wear something fun and creative to PPD.  And then there are the eccentrics and the weirdos.  But how do we tell the difference?  Or more importantly, isn't it odd that we differentiate between eccentric and weird?  Both usually wear clothes of a very unique style.  They definitely stand out in a crowd.  How can you miss someone wearing all black with accent chains, numerous pentacles, spiked boots, and purple hair?  But the eccentrics tend to be respected, while the weird tend to be either shunned or patted on the head, depending on their other behaviors.  There was a girl a grade behind me in high school who often wore a cape and twisted her hair in wires to create tall antlers (she had very long hair) and called herself a "non-conformist."  She irritated another friend of mine who considered herself a "non-conformist" as well, because there was a difference between simply not conforming to popular standards and making a point of going the complete and utter opposite.  She felt the other girl made "non-conformists" look bad.  It made me laugh.  Why did she care how society viewed "non-conformists" if she didn't like society?  But I guess that's where I get my difference between these types of people.  It's all in the attitude and that aura people project.  The outside really doesn't have a great deal to do with it.  For there are also people who "look" like everyone else but aren't.  I've learned to rely more on my senses, my intuition, rather than on just appearances.  Maybe they dress oddly because they are so excited about Paganism and want to express it in their every day life.  I did at one time.  When I was around 21-22, I had black hair with blue streaks and habitually wore a long-sleeved cloak.  My son was around 3-4 and needed speech therapy.  His therapist told me that another therapist had been watching us in the waiting room and thought that many of the other parents could learn a thing or two from me because of how well behaved my kids were.  It made me laugh, yeah, take a pic and put me up as a pattern card for Carmel moms and see how that goes over.  On occasion, I wouldn't mind having the black and blue hair back, but I wouldn't do the cloak again.  And then there's the guy from a Coven I was with for about a year.  Fairly nondescript guy, polite, kind, knowledgeable, but there was just some indefinable thing that made my skin crawl.  He ended up being something of a sexual predator.  Thankfully, I wasn't involved in any of what happened.  Normal, eccentric, or weird it's all about the indefinable something that we project that truly effects how people see us and react to us.  Don't be afraid to be you.  If it's truly You, then you won't get negative reactions from it.  On the contrary, you might be surprised at how many people envy how comfortable you are with yourself.  Eccentric is cool, didn't you know?