Where Normalcy Lurks

Looks Can be Deceiving

I had an interesting experience today. My presence was requested on the local psyc ward. I have not visited one for business or pleasure for a long time... years. I suppose today was personal. Unexpectedly, I could not go last night in the ice storm we experienced during regular visiting hours. The physician left an order that I could come to visit someone in the morning. This is an unexpected exception to the usual rule for visitors.

The person I went to visit greeted me happily, hugged me and said, "It must be nice to be normal." This comment really surprised me. No one, in my whole life ever called me "normal" that I can think of. I responded that "normal" was a very unusual word when it came to me personally, and a very difficult measurement for anyone to live up to. My left eyebrow refused to lower back into the usual (normal?) position for awhile due to the surprise of the expression. My mouth had a funny smiling curve. Eventually, I told this person that I would make a list of people that consider me normal. "You are the only person on my list so far," I added. I gave over the protein bar and a Christmas Get Well card.

Although this is not someone I see very often, this person had a lot of questions for me. "How did you lose that great job?" they asked me. Well, the frankness level was right up there with that of small children. They never hold back the real questions... do they?! I find them very lucky in that respect. My usual response is that I joined the circus during a mid-life career change, but I have not tried this out with any one over age 10 yet. I mentioned the "Big Truck" incident with my small car as well as some other interesting stuff that happened before that. I did not go in depth into these difficult occurrences, since I did not want to frighten anyone, but they wanted to know everything. It was someone else's turn to fall silent with surprise. "Could you walk after the accident?" they wanted to know. "A little, but not too well for awhile," I responded. This person had been in one of my classes about self discovery a few years ago and had a special note for me about the class. "You were right about what I wanted to do," she said, "And I did not do it." For some reason the individual was pleased to tell me this. I think that life is full of many difficult challenges for all of us.


More Views of the Strange and Normal

Today, after I was called normal, I thought about a man I often see in town. He never seemed normal to me. I did not actually "see" him well for awhile but I knew that he was in that blur somewhere. He is a fellow roller blader that is always traveling at high speeds, yelling, and going by in a fuzz of odd movement. He is never traveling slowly enough for me to get a good look at him, and for awhile I wondered if he was not a crazy old man screaming by. He is my opposite in rollerblading. I am always armored up and ready for some risk taking to go bad. This man wears hardly anything besides the smallest shorts you ever saw and has a lot of swinging motions even on a simple cruise level. If he is wearing anything besides those little shorts, I can only guess that there are socks in the roller boots somewhere. He is buried in an amazing array of tattoos.

One day I did get a full glimpse of the man. Just before Christmas, I got a letter that it was time to take care of my car. I decided to go right up and have everything done , rather than taking the chance of being featherheaded. There he was! He was behind the counter and standing still! Finally I could see the speedy roller demon!

To my surprise, and close to shock of the unexpected, this is actually a very young man who was very badly burned in an accident at some time in his life. He was not screaming or acting strange at his work. I might expect strange behavior from someone I have only seen as a speedy blur? He was quite the opposite that day. He greeted me with the air of a small town Maitre de and wished me a happy holiday promising to take nice care of my car. It appears that even his eyelids had been burned and I tried not to stare. I wanted to ask, but I did not. Inside, I still have that child like curiosity but I am too careful to wield my frankness.This burn scarring is what I mistook for age in that blur on wheels! Perhaps the tattoos help cover up some of the more noticeable damage? I spoke to him for a little while. He had nephews and nieces and was doing some special things for them for the holiday. His cheery personality is quite the opposite of what I expected from someone who I thought was probably a hellion.




Who knows what normalcy or bizarreness lurks within anyone? You will receive lessons. You will be tested. You might find out.