As I pondered this question, my mind quickly returns to something my mother use to say whenever we were talking. I use the word talking, because it sounds much nicer than the word gossiping. We would be talking about someone, whether it be about an individual or a whole family, and Mom would often say "Well, they're just not like us." I always associated her saying this as to meaning either us, or the other party wasn't normal. I never quite figured out who was normal and who wasn't normal. Here I am, many years later, a father and a grandfather and I'm still not sure who, or what is normal. I used a quote the other day from Morticia Addams of the famous Addams Family T.V. Show. She said "Normal is an illusion. What is normal for the spider is chaos for the fly.” It sure makes you think doesn't it. Normal applies to so many segments of our lives.
Thinking about being normal can be whimsical and funny and silly or it can be serious and sad and bring tears to your eyes caused by guilt or some other deep feelings. As I think back in my life I can remember thinking it was normal to drink a 6 ounce bottle of Coke and feel totally satisfied, but at the same time I also believed it was normal to sit down and drink a 6 pack or more of beer at one sitting without getting up once except to relieve myself. As I look back now, I realize that wasn't normal, that was getting drunk. The only thing about this situation that was normal was the act relieving myself. This is an example of thinking something we did was funny or silly and normal at the same time. We believe these kind of things and thoughts were normal for a fellow at a young age. I can also remember times of hitch hiking to Florida and New Orleans as a teen and riding my bike down Stone Mountain before my teen years, and I say these times and experiences were normal for a kid back in those days and times. I remember these and many other experience and I, shall we say " justify" them as being normal but some stories I don't tell because I don't want to give my Grandkids the impression that this behavior is normal today.
I can also remember, and it makes me feel so ashamed to remember, a time when I would look at a child in a wheelchair because of Polio, or a child with Down Syndrome or Autism and I would think to myself, "These poor kids just aren't normal." Many times we try to "justify", there's that word again "justify", don't you just love that word. We try to "justify" some of those feelings by the fact that "Well, we were just young. We didn't know better back then. We've learned from experience." But have we? Have we really learned anything? So many times we judge whether a person is normal or not just by the way they look as compared to ourself, or maybe how they believe about some things. If they don't look like us, they're not normal. If the don't worship like us, they're not normal. Sometimes they even have to eat the same kinds of food as we do to be normal. We say we're not prejudice but do we make the same effort to invite Blacks or Hispanics to our churchs as we do people who look like us, or do we say..."Well, they just don't worship like us, you know, in a normal way." Are we just as happy when a Jew or Mormon moves into our neighborhood as if it was a Christian moving in? You know what I mean...."Normal People". Do we look at a diverse neighborhood as a problem or as an opportunity to learn of other cultures and to share the gospel? How about the friends our kids have? Do we let them pick their friends or do we try to pick all their friends for them? After all, we do know what's best for our kids. Those other kids are different. You know what I mean..."They just are not normal."
I worked with teenagers for years and can name so many kids that weren't normal. Kids that were wild. Kids that were poor. Kids that were dirty more than the were clean. Kids that cussed and drank and did other things that weren't NORMAL. But many of these kids that weren't normal grew up to be fine, successful, even prominent adults. Some business owners. Some preachers. Some teachers. Some even managed to grow up to be good Moms and Dads. They grew up to be NORMAL people. Why you ask? Maybe our normal kids were a good influence on them. Maybe a teacher was a good influence on them. In fact, maybe you, were the influence they needed.
Again I think back to years ago. I think back to hair on my shoulders. I think back to silk shirts with collars large enough to serve as a kite if you would have tied a long tail on my back belt loop. I think back to bright colored striped bell bottom pants and sandals with their soles made of old tires.. I think back to a time when most adults thought "I wasn't normal." The thing that scares me now is I look at the young people today with their body piercings and tattoos and some of the clothes they wear and most of those kids look back at me, and they also think...."I'm not normal." And I ask myself....Will I ever be normal?" I have a feeling I never have nor will I ever be normal.....All I can say is, "That's my goal." I think I'll have some shirts printed up that say......."ABNORMALITY IS THE NEW NORMAL"........I could probably sell them and make a fortune. But then I ask myself....Is being rich normal?
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