Normality

[lillibet]

The subject of normality pops up from time to time in various discussions and often engenders debate on what is "normal" and whether there's any such thing, etc. I found myself thinking that one way to potentially get at the subject might be to ask the question "if you don't think you're normal, in what ways would you be different if you were normal?"

Anyone?

Comments

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

Grr, livejournal barfed on me the first time I tried posting this comment,
and lost what I had typed. but I still find this interesting, in a lj-meme like way, so I'll try again.

I also want to observe that I think I've gone from a) feeling like I wasn't
normal, wanting to fit in and wishing I was normal (up to about age 16),
to b) surrounding myself with people I thought of as happily weird and different, but tending to be one of the least weird among that crowd,
but feeling freer to be myself and much happier with it than i was in my youth, to c) feeling like in a lot of ways my life has settled down to more of a normal/mainstream rhythm, and voluntarily having a lot of communities that are more normal than me again but no longer feeling awkward in them, and still being glad of my my weirdness and hanging out with those among my friends who are weirder than me.

if I were normal...

I would watch a lot more TV, have cable, etc.

I would not play board games.

I would never have played roleplaying games/LARPS.

I would not have hung out with the goth kids.

I would eat less adventurously.

I would probably keep kosher and do other more observant Jewish things

I would be wanting to move to the suburbs by the time my child is in school.

I would not be seriously considering moving to Eastern Europe by the time my child is in school.

I would travel less, and go on organized tours when I did travel.

I would not enjoy being a geek.