Mind Retrofit

Archive for March 7th, 2010

I think that it is great that so many people say things like “what is normal” and “there is no normal” but honestly a lot of them are the social norm and it is hard for me to believe that they are willing to accept anything that is completely different from them. Though, I too love the idea of their being no normal. The truth is there is an unspoken law between humans that there is a line of normalcy that should not be crossed.

How do I know this?

Because I have crossed it on many occasions and so have my children and so has my husband. We are quite the quirky family and we live oddly to the rest of our limited world associations, now, because of the very fact that people find us so odd. Not really, we are just a bit strange about being around people.  I for one think that it is just fine for a child to ask whatever is on their mind, being that I do that most of the time and so does David, people do not seem to like this and I cannot remember that for some reason. David and I laugh a lot and my laugh is quite loud, I forget that too. The kids laugh pretty loud too, sometimes Daniel repeats other peoples words out in public with their voice and we all think that is quite humorous. Our boys have pretty wild hair, since they refuse to let me cut it.  We have had people not be quite pleasant to us for these things, just to name a few.

I have heard people claiming that it is good to be unique and different.

Some of them have been the first ones to point out any oddity. See what I am thinking is that as a society it is fine to not be normal as long as it looks like them. If they are obsessed with sports, then by all means any one like that is normal. If you have a fixation with being with friends and setting up many social events, then you are normal. If you watch an unmeasurable amount of TV, then you are normal. But if you like to spend time reading the back of a shampoo bottle, then you are not normal. If you enjoy staring at a spinning object while listening to music, for hours, then you are not normal. If you have an amazing amount of information packed into your brain about serial killers, then you are weird, I know that does sound strange but just go with me.

If you are consumed with watching a cat for hours, then you are quite strange.

Although, you may not be labeled autistic, people will say that you are weird. They will laugh it off and say “he/she is so quirky”. If you eat the same food everyday, at the same time, and if that gets moved back or forward at any point your entire day will not work out right or you spend the entire day trying to get it to work right, then you are not normal. If your clothes have to fit you a certain way and if they don’t you are willing to go through your entire closet to find an outfit that will fit comfortably and you are willing to not match, (and go out in public) then you are strange.

See there are some things that are not acceptable.

Even if you are the most loving, accepting person in the world there is something that you will consider not normal because you are comparing it to yourself, or the hidden law of normalcy, that no one quite has made clear but when you cross it then it is exposed. So somewhere at some time there will be a moment when we will all find some sort of behavior, an outfit, a phrase, something, not normal. How do we handle all of this? People respond in different ways and I have to say that there are some things that absolutely drive me crazy and I do not think that they are normal. And yet I ask to be accepted fully. Can we as humans let go of our own “norm” and accept the “norm” of others? I don’t know but I am willing to try.

Definition of Normal is below, I believe I fall under definition number 8.

1 : perpendicular; especially : perpendicular to a tangent at a point of tangency
2 a : according with, constituting, or not deviating from a norm, rule, or principle b : conforming to a type, standard, or regular pattern
3 : occurring naturally <normal immunity>
4 a : of, relating to, or characterized by average intelligence or development b : free from mental disorder : sane
5 a of a solution : having a concentration of one gram equivalent of solute per liter b : containing neither basic hydroxyl nor acid hydrogen <normal silver phosphate> c : not associated <normal molecules> d : having a straight-chain structure <normal butyl alcohol>
6 of a subgroup : having the property that every coset produced by operating on the left by a given element is equal to the coset produced by operating on the right by the same element
7 : relating to, involving, or being a normal curve or normal distribution <normal approximation to the binomial distribution>
8 of a matrix : having the property of commutativity under multiplication by the transpose of the matrix each of whose elements is a conjugate complex number with respect to the corresponding element of the given matrix