1. current western standards of beauty in the fake ball-like breasts, the extra skinny and tall proportions that people have resorted to frightening surgeries to emulate.

2. that women are “Expected” to be poor in science and math subjects

3. that one is expected to lead the “Average life” of the 9 to 5, the retirement, the compromise of one's dreams

Normalcy is a view through a very small lens.

Normalcy is a set of rules that one accepts. There is no such thing as society.

It is also normal to criticize that which is considered normal.

Most in my society think it is okay if your husband has an affair with another man, as long as it is not a woman. I think it is…hahahha!

Parents think it is okay for their children to be homosexuals as long as they are in the closet and carrying on living a normal life by marrying and having children….you know don’t break the gene-pool!

My society applauds women who live in an abusive, loveless marriage, for the sake of “the children”…I think it is strange to even think that…

I find it extremely abnormal for my society to think that women above 60 should not have any sexual feelings -ahem, grandmothers and sex are not compatible in my world…and i think it is so weird for one section of the society to decide what another person should think or feel.

I find it confusing when one religion calls another’s ways paganism but the same ways in their religion as prophetic revelations…well, as i said earlier, what is normal to you depends on where you stand.

Every religion, every faith, every religious text can be surmarised into two commandments -Love God. Do to others what you do unto yourself. And what I find extremely abnormal is to find that 90% of wars in the world are fought in the name of religion.

Bhudda shunned pomp and pagentry and most importantly idol worship. After his death we promptly made statues of the Bhudda in gold and silver and began worshipping him. Well, something doesn’t seem right there….don’t get me wrong, I love Buddha and the Dalai Lama and the Bhuddism, but can’t help but notice the contrast.

I once worked for lawyers and asked them why they imagined that this would confine a person to truth telling …

..well. GOOD LUCK then Paulo! lol. I will be MOST interested in your new piece, if, when it does come out! xx

I want to offer a different perspective. As an international security analyst, I would like to give you an insight into what is ‘normal’ in our world.

1: state security is paramount, even if human lives are the cost paid.

2: We have weapons that can cause unimaginable destruction, yet we feel safer when we possess them.

3: It is incorrect to talk about international security decisions as decisions of the individual leaders. George W Bush did not choose to go to war with Iraq, rather the US went to war.

4:Emotion or interpretation has no place in our analysis (please look up positivism) instead our SOCIAL world, but be analysed in scientific terms, through emprical data. Human action, process, even ideas must be omitted from all examinations. (Even if it is someone’s idea we must explore!)

These may not be helpful in any way, but hopefully they provide some insight…

Christina x

Thank you…

normal to me also seems like what iben writes. To be normal in our actions we are expected to do as others do, before doing anything to see what the majority is doing and then do accordinglly, be it studies, ambition etc etc. finally its considered normal to even see oneslef thru the eyes of others, that is even to know who or what we are, it’s normal to collect ten opinions of others on who i am and then the crux of it be taken as what i am by me, that is normal.

imagine a society where evryone is blind, teh concept of normality would be what there.

imanine a cociety where everyone is insane ( osho says we are all insane only to varying degrees, some people cross the boiling point and are taken to special places where some perfectlly sane people also may be langushing as paulo once was ) what would be the concept of normal there ?

sorry paulo could not add to what others have alreday listed, agree with kathleen, yagna and most others here who are all ‘abnormal’ in their own way – it’s better to be oneslef, even if it’s branded as being abnormal !

I almost didn’t write back, because my thoughts seem to be so instable in the last months, and if I cannot provide something of value what would really be the point? Maybe just writing it…

It seems that it’s normal for people to have/show a clear direction of their train of thoughts, a clear vision on how life is/should be. It’s normal to hide any major uncertainties/ confusions in life from the ones close to us.

It seems normal to give “expert” advices on life/love and is considered abnormal to just admit that maybe you haven’t found an answer yet or just don’t know.

It seems normal to admire role-models we know very little about based on a single side of them or a single action. Funny, based on that, it seems normal to teach our children to look more outside of themselves on bits and pieces of others that they’re trying to emulate instead of looking more into themselves.

It seems normal for women to be judged on sexual past and for men to be praised for the same thing.

It seems normal for people to be jaded about love. Sadly, it seems normal for jaded people to feel the need to ‘warn’ anybody who might still hope or believe in real love.

It seems normal to need a complete connection on every level of our being: mind, body, spirit.

It seems normal to assume that because we know more in this day and age we’re actually smarter. We put it on our business cards. We search for it when we’re hiring for a “leadership position”. I have two degrees, several other designations, a passion for learning, and I still make life-basic mistakes, and there are so many days in which I feel just a “smart-looking idiot”.

It seems normal for me to push him away for both our sake and for him to stay away. Months ago I would have never thought I could do anything to hurt a person I deeply love, but it’s amazing how now it seems so normal. Conscious and normal. Is it normal to keep people away to protect them? Seems normal.

With respect,
Anlao

Its most normal to follow the daily activities of icons like you.

And tht’s wht all of us normal people are doing ……by responding to you ;)

This I know from my grandparents and parents.

It is also normal for the parents to tell their child this same thing, and to not make the same mistakes that they did, but the child never really listens. Thus repeating the pattern.

It is normal to love deeply; for a person, for a religion, even for an object in some cases. Manic love is normal.

And waking up at the crack of dawn every morning even though we don’t want to, is normal. Whether we like it or not.

These are my thoughts. :)

1. To engage in “holy war,” or to kill for the sake of defending one’s religion. No true religion would advocate killing.

2. To use religion, government, media, Big Business, or any other powerful institutions to suppress, oppress, or persecute others in the guise of “protecting national interests or the common good.”

3. To ban sex (which is a potentially sacred act) and approve of violence (which can NEVER be sacred in any form) in media for children.

4. To ban a long list of abused substances EXCEPT tobacco and alcohol.

5. To heavily tax the middle and lower class while allowing the upper class to get away with tax shelters and other such mechanisms.

6. To glorify thinness, “perfection,” and many other physical things that are not only shallow but are also potentially dangerous for young girls.

7. To tolerate philandering among men because “boys will be boys.”

8. To push people to go further in their careers but not to deepen their lives and relationships.

9. To push children to be what their parents want them to be, and not what would allow them to reach their highest potential.

10. To think that the mind, the body, and the soul are separate things, and to abuse the body with so many unnatural substances (i.e., medicines) that not only make us dependent on the giant pharmaceuticals, but that also dull our senses and further separate the physical body from our thoughts and emotions.

Normal comes from the latin norma, a carpenter’s square.It came to mean conforming to a standard.
Expectations of normality affect everyone, but they always affect the marginalized the most.
Normal is not something to aspire to, it is something to get away from.
In soul level we are all one -and let it be so.
Now it is time to jump from ego-land to lego-land.
Thank you & LOVE to all KILI

2ºQue los curas no se casen, cuando el estar con otra persona les daría una estabilidad en su vida.

3ºPensar que una persona espiritual no pueda pensar en el sexo, o por ser espiritual no pueda tener deseo sexual, cuando es un componente natural de las personas.

4ºPensar que cuando estas con una persona es tu propiedad privada, cuando sabemos que nadie pertenece a nadie.

5ºQue un niño tenga que crecer en una familia con un padre y una madre, cuando lo importante es que se desarroye en un entorno de amor sea cual sea, me refiero a las adopciones que muchos no aceptan que un matrimonio gay adopten.

6ºNo considerar la elección de un enfermo terminal que no quiera seguir viviendo o cualquier enfermo, paraplégico que así lo decida.

7ºPensar en no cambiar lo establecido por miedo, cuando de todos es sabido que el hombre no permanece estático que va cambiando con el tiempo.

8ªSer individuales cuando todos sabemos que necesitamos de los otros.

9ªApoyar una guerra, cuando todos sabemos que donde se crece es en la paz.

Confío en un mundo mejor y que cada uno de nosotros aportemos alguna idea.

Beijos,
Mari Raphael.

Many things are normal in society while it should not. The most annoying to me are:-

1.Talking and smiling to people that we don’t like even when nothing comples us to do so. Pretending that we agree and like them while in their back we talk bad about them. Why can people just stay away from people they do no like? it is not bad to disagree with others. it is ok to announce that we do not like x or z.

2.Making generalization. like saying,”…like the American people”, or saying that someone is with such bad or good characteristics just because he belongs to certain country, or town, or family, or any group of people. The same as descriping a whole nation with one quality, and judging the whole nation based on the actions of few, or based on wrong media, or sterotypes.
And it is normal when some people talk in a conversation and one of them make such unfair judgement, no one says to him/her it is not fair and it is injustice.