Normal
I was listening to Delilah the other day and she quoted Jodie Foster--"Normal is not something to attain, it's something to get away from". I'm sure I botched it up and those weren't her exact words, but the lesson is there.
Many people think that coloring outside the lines is abnormal, or something quite shocking. We teach children from day 1 to color inside the lines, even what colors to use for their drawings. But what if they see the world outside these lines, that the colors actually blend with the environment? What if the colors actually leap off objects and into the surrounding atomosphere? You cannot tell a child how to interpret his/her own perceptions.
I remember once in college, one of my roommates saying that he embraced the "granola-head, Dead Head" culture because it didn't flow with the norm. That this sub-culture allowed him to express himself and gave him more freedom to discover his inner-feelings, desires and wants. Another more conservative roommate said that by going into a different sub-culture, he wasn't straying from the norm, just accepting a different norm. One norm is a different man's abnorm.
The point is, we must all strive to be ourselves. As long as what we do doesn't harm another person, than it's okay to express that. If I want to wear my plaid jacket, than dammit I will (I threw that in there--mainly Mondeep and Saritha know what I'm referring to).
The definition for normal is quite broad. We should not let it hinder our own expressivity.
Many people think that coloring outside the lines is abnormal, or something quite shocking. We teach children from day 1 to color inside the lines, even what colors to use for their drawings. But what if they see the world outside these lines, that the colors actually blend with the environment? What if the colors actually leap off objects and into the surrounding atomosphere? You cannot tell a child how to interpret his/her own perceptions.
I remember once in college, one of my roommates saying that he embraced the "granola-head, Dead Head" culture because it didn't flow with the norm. That this sub-culture allowed him to express himself and gave him more freedom to discover his inner-feelings, desires and wants. Another more conservative roommate said that by going into a different sub-culture, he wasn't straying from the norm, just accepting a different norm. One norm is a different man's abnorm.
The point is, we must all strive to be ourselves. As long as what we do doesn't harm another person, than it's okay to express that. If I want to wear my plaid jacket, than dammit I will (I threw that in there--mainly Mondeep and Saritha know what I'm referring to).
The definition for normal is quite broad. We should not let it hinder our own expressivity.
posted by JM at
12:46 PM
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