Let us recount the great normal people. There was… umm. To be great is to be abnormal.
Weirdo. A slanderous term often use in the place of a valid insult is often a prerequisite for anything above normal.
The great leaders of the world, the artists that shape our culture, the big thinkers that drag us kicking and screaming into the future; weirdos, odd balls, freaks, black sheep, excentrics.
What good is normal? Normal is the building block of the species. Farmers, craftsmen, laborers, all well and good things to be, but normal. Sculptor, musician, dancers, playwrights; those things when spoken about result in raised eyebrows of both doubt and interest. Rocket scientist, theoretical physicist, experiential engineers; those things that demand a certain reverence and apprehension as to what exactly the field is responsible for.
From the stranger on the bus that is well spoken while conversing with himself to the rockstar prancing about stage with ridiculous attire, abnormality runs throughout.
Not all strangeness is great but all greatness is strange.
All of this, yet, we live in a culture that strives for normal. We do not value the abnormal as we should. Failure is the touchstone for reinvention. Those that fail to achieve normal are blessed with the chance to try again, to be something else, and to fail to become that new ideal, resulting in the creation of new possibilities, while struggling to achieve the state of normal that will never be as good or as interesting as the person required to reach the goal.
Children. Children are abnormal, incomplete, under developed, and flawed of logic, yet they speak deep truths in tones of unadulterated honesty and clarity. We treasure them above all else while we strive to eliminate the very thing we find so endearing in them.
The best advice I can give is this. Try to be normal but please never succeed.
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