The 'N' Word

I want to talk to you about a word. This word is controversial. So controversial that it has started fights, ended friendships, even ended careers. It’s a word that I hate, because people always use it incorrectly. The word does not mean what they think it means.

I'm talking about the word “normal”.

People say things like:

“I don’t like that guy. He's not normal!”

“It's not normal to spend so much time alone.”

“Homosexuality not normal!”

You know what? All these statements are technically true. It’s not normal to spend a lot of time alone. As low as 16 percent of the population are introverts like myself, meaning people that need to spend time alone to recharge. And homosexuality is not normal. Only 4-10% of the world population identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer, or transgender, differing slightly by country.

But you know what else isn’t normal? Blue eyes! Only 8% of the world’s population has blue eyes!

Only 2% of the world’s population have green eyes.

Having blue or green eyes is not normal!

Also, being left handed. 10%. (also me!)

Having blonde hair. 2%.

Being white. Between 5 - 27 % of the world’s population, depending on how you define demographics and race.

Normality is just being among the group that is represented the most. Being abnormal is not a bad thing. It’s not a problem. The real problem is equating normal with good and abnormal with bad! Normality is neither good or bad. Honestly, a lot of times it’s boring.

So who friggin’ cares if something is normal or not? If you have to judge people, judge them by their intelligence, or their capacity to love, or their willingness to help their fellow humans. Don’t bring ‘normal’ into it. It doesn’t matter in the least.