Sunday’s Scribbling…. Normal is the new Beautiful

Statues in a window

 

 

We have a catchword in our household to describe, "A wonderful, loving, easy to be around, good person." The catchword we use is, "Normal." When we meet someone who we like and we think the other people in our family will like, we say, "He's normal."

Normal has become the new extraordinary in our household. 

Which is exceptional given that the word "normal" means anything but extraordinary.

 

 

 

Girl holding a crow

 

 

"Normal" has qualities that can be easier to relate to on an everyday base, and finding someone who you can relate to "normally" is a good thing.

Having normality is like having a cozy corner to read, or an old faithful sweater to wrap around, or having comfort food on a blistering night. It is normal to what to have family, friends, things, and ideas that create a cocoon, a kick off your shoes comfort in one's life and relationship.

When finding simple-ordinary-everyday-goodness marketed as extraordinary, then one starts to doubt that simple-ordinary-everyday-goodness is not easy to come by and therefore special.

Normal is overlooked as ordinary…. when in a life "ordinary" is not so easy to come by, normal starts to feel extraordinary.

 

 

Art in a window

 

The French say, "C'est normale", (Which literally means, "This is normal.") a hundred times a day. They say it instead of "think nothing of it". Though they do not mean it as I have taken it, I have seen because of hearing it daily, that yeah "c'est normal" is special.

 

 

 

Nude statue

 

 

The same old, same old can also mean the good old good old, and those who know me know I have a thing for things old.

Normal is my new beautiful.

 

……

 

Notes:

Sunday Scribblings is a blog that is set up to provide inspiration and motivation for anyone who enjoys writing and would like a weekly challenge.

 

One Thousand Gifts: A dare to live fully right where you are.

 

Simplicity The Freedom of Letting Go

 

 

 

 

 



Comments

10 responses to “Sunday’s Scribbling…. Normal is the new Beautiful”

  1. Hmmm, mightn’t “normal” vary from household to household, even for each individual within said household? E.g., a vegetarian dinner guest (naming no names, of course!) could be regarded as normal Chez Corey/Yann, but not necessarily at other people’s homes.
    Farmboy Husband appears on the surface to be about the most “normal” person you’d ever expect to meet, in terms of disposition, conduct, speech, values, grooming, etc. Yet as one gets to know him better, one realizes that he harbors as many idiosyncrasies as the average (LOL!) neighborhood eccentric.
    OTOH, I pride myself on being a tad eccentric, albeit based on principles rather than for eccentricity’s sake alone — hey, decades of effort (and some pain) have gone into this process! — but I try to rein in the natural inclination to bend others to my will too militantly.
    And goodness knows, it’s not always easy 😉

  2. For anyone who might be interested, a meditation on a certain aspect of writing.
    “The Writing Life: The point of the long and winding sentence”:
    http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/books/la-ca-pico-iyer-20120108,0,2137466.story
    For me, long sentences in Portuguese are fraught with pitfalls just lying in wait for the translator to fall into. Yes, I know I dangled a preposition, sosumi 😉

  3. I will never look at normal in quite the same way. Thanks for being your “normal” self.

  4. You nailed it! I agree that “Normal has become the new extraordinary” mostly because it seem rare! Enjoyable read!
    Hugs Giggles

  5. It has been years since I’ve done a Sunday Scribblings. And since I no longer have a blog, I guess I’d have to just do it for my eyes only. Thank you so much for bringing it back to my attention. My word to guide this year is “reconnect” so it would be fitting to take a another try at it!
    Love that you’ve shared something unique to your family. We have similar things that must seem odd to others but make complete sense to us 🙂

  6. Your blog is a joy Corey, thank you for making it such a special place.

  7. Karen@PasGrande-Chose

    I’m enjoying these new directions you’re taking, Corey – focus on artists, Sunday scribbling – you’re full of surprises, which is part of what makes it always fun to pop in here daily!
    I’ve always been amused/intrigued by what the French mean by normale/pas normale and I like your original take on this.
    I hope this year brings you much normality and also many more good surprises!
    xo

  8. jend’isère

    Fitting into your own “norms” I guess is what is normal. Thus perhaps living fully our unique individuality.

  9. KAMFreeman

    Corey what a delicious new look at normal; you have opened a visual, experiential door for me into looking now at this new normal as I go through my day, week, month, year ahead. Thanks as always for the freshness of your writing and thinking.
    Kristin

  10. I’m happy to have happened upon your blog. Thanks for sharing 🙂

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