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Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Perfectly Normal

It's a rather familiar anxiety: sitting upright in hard cushion-less chairs, waiting for the expert at the lighter end of the table to pronounce his judgment. Whether it's a medical test or a school examination or a something else, the feeling is the same.

Life remains paused as he deliberates and considers, the data spread out in front. You try to peer and make sense of the upside-down bits of writing.

Then comes the relief - the words "absolutely normal".

Normal. Standard. Conforming to norms. A very common phrase in modern life. But if looked at, isn't it non-nonsensical? Insulting? Is every deviation from the average "abnormal"? It's like all the individuality of humanity has been taken, and stripped away with a fine wire-cutter.

Normal is safe. Normal is desired. Normal is cherished.

Normal is unexceptional. Normal is boring.

Why be normal?

2 comments:

crazed_mellow said...

u sir are a poet.

My Foot? said...

be normal so that people don't take one look at you and run screaming to the other side of the road..
be normal so that you can fly abroad with going through a million medical tests over n over again..

nice article :)