How many people in this age have been told, "That is not normal?"
Or, even better yet, how many people have been simply told, "You are not
normal?" Take a moment to relish in the obviousness of that statement
for a moment, instead of being offended. Why?
Because normal does not exist, and then again, it does.
Allow
me to explain what I mean by this. This note may end up getting
long-winded, but there is a lot to explain. The public perception of
"normal" is not accurate. In fact, the public perception of "normal"
DOES NOT EXIST!!! In fact, logically and mathematically, normal does
not exist.
Now, you may be thinking, "Huh?" People
have been telling me my whole life, what is normal and what is not
normal. But I guarantee you, that if you ask someone else, somewhere
else, what is normal, the answer will be completely different. There is
a sound reason behind this.
We are going to break this down mathematically first, and then it will be applied to the real world.
First
of all, let us define what "normal" is. Normal is in the real world,
average. It means that for a person to be normal, they must be
average. There is a problem with this assumption however... how do we
find an average personality. What does it mean for a person to be
"average" or "normal?" This herein is where the definition because
elusive.
We must assume that to be "normal" you must
fall within a specific set of personalities. Therefore, to find an
average, we must therefore take the total quantitative value of
personalities divided by people. That's right, we must define this
average to be based on how many unique personalities there are, divided
by the total number of people which contain this personalities.
How
many times have we heard this mantra: "No two people are alike." This
mantra has a MAJOR part to play in this proof. Because logically
speaking, if no two people are alike, that means every person is
unique. Being that every person is unique, we must also consider that
the population is forever circulating. People are being born, and
people are passing away. It is ever-changing, it is dynamic. With this
in mind, we must also consider that even identical twins, (while are
alike in many ways), are NOT the same person. Different situations
cause different personalities. One may be wild, and the other tame.
Siamese twins even have different personalities. The fact of the matter
is, no two people are alike. Genetics, environment, and far too many
other variables change our personalities. They change who and what we
are. The fact of the matter is, given this dynamic population, the ONLY
WAY that no two people can ever be alike, is if there is an infinite
number of personalities. Personalities are also dynamic within each
person. For instance, you could have a cheeky demeanor, and then the
death of cat or dog could turn you into a crazed psychopath or a
suicidal person. People with multiple personalities could exhibit many
different "alters" with their own strengths and weaknesses.
If
there were a finite number of personalities, eventually there would be
an overlap where two people were exactly alike. It's like saying that
Earth is a one in a million planets. That means that the odds of
finding another planet are remote, but if we assume the universe to be
infinite, and there's more than a million other planets out there in the
vastness of space, then there is bound to be another planet somewhere
out there just like Earth (hence the belief in life in other planets).
Getting
back to the point at hand, we have an infinite number of personalities
and despite being ever-changing and dynamic, a FINITE number of people.
(There is a quantitative number to the world population, therefore
finite). Obviously, to find the average, we would divide. This is
where the problem arises. We are dividing infinity by a finite number.
What is the average of that? The answer just happens to be INFINITY!
That's right, folks, if we, for instance, attempted to divide an
infinite number by lets say, 2, we STILL end up with an infinite
number. It doesn't matter if that denominator is 2 or 6 billion, the
answer still remains infinity.
Where does this leave
us? Well, it means that average or normalcy in terms of the human
condition just does not exist. In fact, the only way to even come close
to approximating "normal" is to grab a seemingly random set of people,
come up with traits that show up the most often and boom, "close
enough."
But we know, it is much more complicated than
that. See, because for a finite population, there is still an infinite
number for average. And given this result, there is only one logical
conclusion. WE DEFINE OUR OWN NORMAL. That's right!! Normal DOES
exist, within us. Each person's perception of normal will differ than
the next person's. And this continues ad infinitum. And as new people
are born into this world, they will continue to define their own normal
as well. What we as people must understand is that we must accept our
own place and define our own normal.
Our own
interpretations of "normal" define us as people. Given mathematics
again, this also means you must cherish your interpretation of normal
and abide by it. Go back to the logic of averages. What happens when
you change the average? For instance, suppose your average grade in
school was a 80, and then it was 85. What does this mean? That means a
grade changed, or a new one was added that caused an increase in your
average. Now, bring this back into your "normal." When another person
attempts to change your interpretation of "normal," that means that
something in your personality must change. Somehow, you must change who
you are as a person, to strive to achieve another person's idea of
"normal." And to change who you are as a person just to strive towards
someone else's "normal" is in irony, IMPOSSIBLE. It is impossible to
achieve someone else's "normal" both logically and mathematically. Our
personalities and our own personal "normals" is what makes each of us,
unique. And unique does NOT equal normal.
So,
remember all of you unique people out there... You define your own
normal. When someone tells you, "You are not normal," you can just sit
back, smile, and reply, "And neither are you." :D
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