At the beach this afternoon I saw an older man go into the surf wearing a long coat, long pants and shoes. He was clearly having a good time and harming no one, but the police showed up. Every time this guy goes to the beach someone calls the police because he isn’t “normal.”
In my humble opinion, “normal is just another word for the neurosis of the place we live. If I do not have the same fear as you, I am not normal, if I do not place the same value on something as you do, I am not normal. It’s MY journey, and as long as my actions do not impinge on your freedoms what is the harm?
We spend much energy on trying to get others to behave the way we think they should, even if we ourselves do not live up to those standards. Just because I love roller coasters and got a real kick out of skydiving, and you are afraid of stepping off a curb is no reason to think I am abnormal. If you choose to have 27 cats in a two bedroom apartment, do I have to insist a law is passed to prevent that? It is YOUR journey, and no matter what I think of it, you are not hurting anyone else.
I have often said “normal” is highly over rated. Some of our best stuff comes from people who are far from “normal.” Thomas Edison was not “normal”, Henry Ford, Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs, all not “normal” people, just people who, for all their stuff, dared to walk their own journey. If there is a part of you longing to express, which will not cause harm to others or impinge on their freedoms, please, please, please let it out to express, you might just be what the world needs.
