Normal is nothing more than a cycle
on a washing machine.
~ Whoopi Goldberg
When I was a teenager, my life was a never-ending quest for normal. I wanted to fit in, to wear what the popular kids were wearing, do what they were doing, listen to the same music . . .Ā etc.
The funny thing is, I always felt abnormal because I didn’t fit in. I didn’t like smoking pot and drinking; I liked writing stories and playing my guitar.Ā I didn’t like Led Zeppelin; I liked John Denver. I didn’t look great in tight mini-skirts; I looked and felt more like myself in long, flowing skirts and scarves.
Now I can see the wisdom of Whoopi Goldberg . . . there really is no such thing as “normal.” It is a concept thought up by the media to get us to buy what “everyone else” is wearing, driving, drinking, reading, watching, and listening to. Even now that my adolescence is a good fifty years behind me, I still have to be careful not to get caught up in our culture’s obsessive quest for the conventional. I have discovered that trying to be like everyone else is simply a waste of my own time and energy. Because I’m not like everyone else. And neither are you!
We are each unique, wonderful human beings with individual gifts to give the world. When we start trying to fit our distinctive, irreplaceable selves into the cookie cutter molds that society tells us is “normal,” we throw away our precious chance to become exactly who we are meant to be.
Let us listen within to our own inner callings, and let us be true to them in spite of what is happening all around us.
Questions to ponder/journal with this week:
1. Look through some magazines and newspapers, or take a stroll through social media. Make note of any references to “normal.” Make note of what you find.
2. How do the media try to influence you to be someone you’re not?
3. Make a list of 15 unique qualities in yourself that you value. Hang the list on the wall where you can see it every day!