What Normal Person?

I don't see normal people on this planet.  I really can't tell that I have met one.  What I have met were unique individuals with various traits.  People are more diverse than you have ever imagined.  Let's explore together what people are like, what a normal person really is, and where can we go from here.

I've traveled through many countries to include Europe, United States, and Asia.  I've talked to many people; more than the average person would.  I have yet to talk to two that are the same.  Even fraternal twins seem to be unique in some way.  More often than not, you may find that people have traits in their character that make them stand out.  I've seen people: try to get away with as much as possible, yield to others consistently, talk to everyone they meet in depth, ignore anyone who approaches them, struggle with basic math or writing, have impressive understanding about construction/engineering, wonder at nature, think only of their goals, excel at fitness or sports, do nothing but sit at a computer or TV, appreciate the arts, thinks only of the bottom line, acts to impress as many people as possible, care little about what people think, have attractive looks or voice, have unattractive features, knows how to make a buck, knows how to spend money, forget to take stuff with them, always remembers what someone said to them, be that annoying and vocal neighbor, show kindness to their neighbors in need with coffee and blankets, and more.  People are unique wherever you go.

What do we mean by a normal person?  Normal means conforming to a standard.  A standard could be a law, a policy, a socially acceptable behavior, or even an unwritten rule.  Betty Crocker is a well known name among bakers and baker aficionados, and yet this person never existed in a single person.  Check out Who Was Betty Crocker? by Roy Rosenzweig.  Betty was a composite personality.  She was born out of popular responses to General Mills.  This is what a normal person is also.  A normal person is not a real person but an ideal of what society or a community thinks a person should be like.  The ideal also changes throughout history.  Imagine if you took a normal person today and put him/her in the 1800's.  Would they be considered a normal person? Absolutely not!  They would be considered liberal, radical, and strange.  That's because the ideals of today are not the same ideals as in the 1800's.  The idea of prejudice was different.  There was black and white prejudice like today, but worse, and there was German vs Danish vs Italian vs English.  Economy back then was more agrarian than industrial.  News was on printed newspapers not on TV or the internet.  You telegraphed someone instead of texting.  There were no phones, so you wore watches to tell time.  You actually had to be face to face with someone to carry on a conversation.  They wore more clothes and didn't have motorized washing machines.  You see that a normal person of today is not the same as a normal person of yesterday.

What does this all mean to you and me?  Most people see themselves as a normal person.  They pay taxes and obey the laws.  Some may not even do that and still consider themselves as normal.  The truth is; none of us are normal.  We all fall short of normal.  Not that it's a competition.  Normal is what we think we ought to be and perhaps strive for.  The reason is because we're afraid to stand out.  We're afraid to be ridiculed.  We want to hide those things that makes us look different.  Unfortunately, we often hide those thing form ourselves as well and disregard them entirely.  I say we should embrace those things that does not make us normal for ourselves.  If you think about it, those contestants on American Idol, or the other Idol shows around the world, that win are not normal.  The do stand out.  In the music industry standing out is important.  So not being normal can lead to good things.  I say embrace them regardless of what anyone else thinks.  I will caution you about being overt about them liberally.  You should gauge how much you show people and when to show them.  It helps to be more accepting by others.  As an extrovert, it's always been hard for me, if not impossible, to hide all the things that make me stand out.  I'm sensitive and quirky.  I'm opinionated and loud.  Different souls are attracted to me and different ones are repelled by me.  There are things that I do hide from people though.  I've never been fired from a job, but often I'm required to justify my employment.  I've learned to listen more to people and that helps a lot.  I give other people the stage to have their say.  That makes me look better overall.

People are too diverse to be normal, and normal is just an ideal.  We can claim our true nature and still work in society.  Fear is the only thing form keeping us form ourselves.  We are unique, and we are good.  We don't have to succumb to fear.  We can be unconventional and still operate in this world.

Diversity Of Life

In many documentaries I've seen, biologist and scientist talk about how diverse life is on planet Earth.  I find this principle to be true in social situations as well.  Many people I've encountered in my travels have been colorful and unique.

I met a person in an airport.  We both had to wait for connecting flights.  He seemed mesmerized with my accent.  While my accent would seem uncommon to most people, he found it uncommon.  He was able to pick up the diverse nuances in my speech.  I grew up with more than one language and more than one national background.  He was able to pick up some, but not pinpoint all of them.  Since then, on occasion, I come across people here and there who comment on my accent.  I figure that these people have a special gift.  Their gift must be in their hearing.  They seem able to pick apart things they here and analyze them.  I cannot say I can do such things.  While I enjoy music, that's where the magic of hearing stops.  I can't sing, and I can't even keep rhythm.  These people have a special ability.  You never know who or what your going to come across.

I know a person who has never had a broken bone.  She's even been in a car accident but with no broken bones.  This reminds me of the movie Unbreakable.  In the beginning of the movie the hero slowly discovers that what he took for granted in life was remarkable to others.  He did not break.  He would walk away from accidents.  This prompted some self discovery and he found out how else he was different.  I have encountered just a couple of people like that.  I can safely say that they are strong but level headed and quiet people.  They don't seem to have egos to bruise or care to prove themselves to anyone.  These are amazing individuals and they have my full respect.

Some people I've encountered had a very different gift, if you can call it that.  They were unlucky.  Unlucky things would always happen to them.  They were not necessarily devastating, but there were many of them and they happened almost on schedule or time table at regular intervals.  These incidents would be things like a fender bender, or a freak accident.  I used to think that these people just attracted these things to happen somehow.  Perhaps they do, but now I don't think its intentional.  It could be a gift, and if these people would do some self discovery perhaps they may find a way to control it.  If I had to guess, I'd say that they have natural intention that is always active and it is unruly because they have not yet found a way to control it.  Sometimes these people would say things like that they have tried to think positively but it did not work.

Empaths are natural sensitives to other people's emotions and/or pains.  This means that the untrained empath can get into trouble and suffer various emotions throughout the day.  This may seem like a disability.  The trained empath can turn the disability into an ability.  I know several empaths, and I am an empath as well.  Most empaths just want to cope with life day by day.  Others want to use their ability to help others.  I have to say that it was very liberating once I found out how to control my gift.  I was able to shore up the weaknesses and improve the strengths.  I stopped getting in trouble with my employers, and my relationship with all people improved tremendously.

People are diverse.  They have gifts.  It's important for people to find out what their gifts are and how to control them.  This requires some self exploration or self discovery.  Our society only supports self discovery on a limited basis.  It's up to each person to discover themselves.  You just may be more unique and special than you thought.