Normal and Good

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I know so many people who are told they are not normal. Sometimes this is done to affirm them, but sometimes it is done to discourage them. It is frequently assumed that normal is synonymous with good, which is not necessarily true. For example, in prison it is normal to have committed a crime, which is not good.

Two of my favorite books are prescient to this discussion. The first comes from Stephen Douglas' Hitchhiker books. He introduces a character named Wonko the Sane who never enters the asylum. Wonko lives in a cave and believes he is the only sane and normal person on the planet, and near the entrance to the door of the cave he has a sign announcing you are about to enter the asylum. Now, the people on his planet naturally think he's bonkers. What if he's right?

The other book to which I wish to make reference is GK Chesterton's "What's Wrong With the World". In this book, he lays out his argument that what's wrong is that we do not ask what is right. We ask what is trendy, easy, fashionable, expedient, advantageous, or normal. Nobody bothers to ask what ought to be. Everyone wants what they want to be truth.

Too many people on our planet are in the business of trying to boss God about the heavens. They tell Him what they want and what they demand and try to blackmail Him to bless them by promising things contingent on miracles. We assume we know what's best for us, but how many people really do and how many of us even really know what we want?

What we see today is nothing more than a bunch of people acting like they have their act together. A professor asked me today what it was about people who seem to be able to have things fall into place. It's easy. Either they're pretending or they're blind. Remember that most of what you see is a play. People group together to fit in, because they know that even though the squeaky wheel may get the grease, sometimes it gets replaced.

People ought to be more concerned with what is right. We ought to care more about what's right than what's popular or normal. Who's to say that those of us who think we're normal aren't the ones with the problem? What if Wonko the Sane is correct?

You see, people equate normalcy with goodness. They think if they're like others they're ok. Sometimes, however, it is the people who are not normal who are right. Patton, More, Moses, Steve Jobs...none of these people were normal, but they were validated as being right. The world would be a better place if right were normal, if good were normal. The world would be better if more people were concerned about what they ought to do rather than what they elect to do. Even if it is not normal to be good, it is always good to be good.