I have often had an issue with ‘being normal’, which is why I decided to observe the way life influences or creates many versions of this thing called ‘normal’. It’s fascinating how life manipulates the way people perceive the sights and events encountered in their environment creating a spectrum of Normality and Abnormality.
In this section I reveal the lessons I’ve learned regarding this enigmatic concept, including the impact of influence on our perception of normal. I also discuss the fact that normal can be both characteristic and conditional, an insight that brings a whole new dimension to the word. Best of all, I show just how fine the line is between ‘normal’ and ‘different’, and how being different can in fact be quite the normal thing to do.
- Influence & Normalisation
- In the eye of the beholder—learn how familiarity can transform the exceptional into normal, and how fear can turn normal into a condition to be avoided at all costs.
- The Weight of Foreign Influence
- The geography of normalcy—observe how distance can affect the perception of what is normal, with greater distances increasing a sense of abnormality and even dread.
- What Is Normal?
- My abnormal version of normal—see how maintaining a common ground normal with others became increasingly harder as my taste for the abnormal grew ever stronger over time.
- Just a Spoonful to Start…
- A slippery slope down the rabbit hole—follow the trajectory of my abnormal journey, where a small taste led to a lifetime diet of ever-increasing hits of anti-normal behaviour.
- My Internal Apocalypse
- Relative normality—discover how only by seeing past the illusion of normal was I able to see just how normal I really am, faults, flaws, and quirks included.
- Our Differences
- Subtle course changes—see how even the slightest difference between me and you can turn into a huge distance as our lifetime journey takes us ever further apart.