normal

“A perfectly normal person is rare in our civilization.”
Karen Horney

(courtesy the Web)

We try to walk about an hour every morning.
And during our morning jaunts, we see an array of creatures
both great and small.

Deer
Rabbits
birds of every shape, size and description
bugs
dogs
cats
squirrels
chipmunks
and then there are a few oddities…
several fox squirrels along with several species of snakes..
the pictures offered today are of a black headed fox squirrel and a grey rat snake— the first image is taken by a photographer–my pictures are below…

The fox squirrels and the snakes wandering out along the neighborhood roads
appear a bit out of place…not exactly the normal animal fare.

(fox squirrel spied while out walking / Julie Cook / 2021)

And suddenly normal takes on a new meaning…

Due to my recent babysitting hiatus, I’ve been playing catch up here in blogland.
As I was reading over the various blogs that I oh so enjoy, I noticed an underlying
thread weaving its way throughout each post…it was the word normal

So I thought that it would be best if I looked up the word
to see what a dictionary might offer in the way of explaining the word…

adjective: normal
conforming to a standard; usual, typical, or expected.

MEDICINE
(of a salt solution) containing the same salt concentration as the blood.

noun: normal; plural noun: normals
the usual, average, or typical state or condition.
“her temperature was above normal”

mid 17th century (in the sense ‘right-angled’): from Latin normalis,
from norma ‘carpenter’s square’ (see norm).
Current senses date from the early 19th century.

conforming to a type, standard, or regular pattern :
characterized by that which is considered usual, typical, or routine

according with, constituting, or not deviating from a norm, rule,
procedure, or principle

occurring naturally

generally free from physical or mental impairment or dysfunction :
exhibiting or marked by healthy or sound functioning

So it appears that ‘normal’ is a standard.
It’s routine.
It’s centering.
It’s sound, stable…
It’s not out of the ordinary
It’s a means of measure.

It’s the starting point while anything deviating outward, upward, downward
or backward moves away from the standard, the norm, the home place.

And so as I consider the word normal, I can’t help but look at what is
currently transpiring around this country regarding
our public schools…a three ringed circus full of everything but that
which is normal.

Abnormal is actually more accurate.

It was in the mid 19th century that the nation’s leaders determined that
our youth needed to be educated.
Not merely the upper crust whose families could afford private educations
or tutors…but education for each and every child.
(and no that was not an example of white privilege–it was a matter of
aristocracy vs the average citizen…hierarchy has been with us through
the ages…
hence why the Marxists are hard at work to “level the playing field”
and that, mind you, is a key educational phrase…but I digress)

With a booming growth taking place in our cities, along with
a growing influx of immigrants, coupled with an upward spiraling industrial
revolution, we had transitioned from being that of a nation based solely
upon an agricultural economy to one that was of an
up and coming economy of technological growth.

Our wealthier children had tutors and private schools…
yet the general populace needed rudimentary basic educational skills.
Thus a free public education would focus on what was thought to be
the most important basic needs when it came to “educating” children…
reading, writing and arithmetic.

Eventually science, literature and history entered the picture.

And as the nation grew and expanded while young men were sent overseas to wars,
it was determined a wider depth of knowledge was needed and so courses in
geography, latin and civics were added.

Throw in courses such as drafting, the fine arts, music and we
had a full well rounded education shaping up

Now granted this is all just a simplified look at the the inception and growth
of our nation’s public schooling…
however somewhere in the 20th century, things took a turn.
And that turn was not necessarily for the better.

Sex education came onto the scene.

Mainly because the ‘powers that be’ were concerned about all the young
men who were being sent overseas to fight in wars and yet were contracting
a variety of sexually transmitted diseases at a rapid rate.

Fast forward through prohibition, a depression, a post war world,
an iron curtain, the growth of baby boomers, a police action,
rock and roll, civil rights, a sexual revolution, women’s liberation,
a space race, a drug revolution, assassinations, flower power,
a summer of love, an endless war, an angst ridden youth…
all the while, our public educational institutions were quietly
changing.

Normal quietly became a casualty of the times.

And other casualties of this generational madness…

Our:
Reverence
Respect
Parental authority
Nuclear family
Judaeo/ Christian corner stone

We are now being sold a sorry sack of lies…
Our schools, school leadership, school boards have all given in to the lies…
lies such that our original normal is now a new normal…
and thus we must teach to a new normal…

any deviation from normal, according to each definition of normal,
means that things are not normal.
Normal is the standard.
New is not.

so tomorrow lets explore this new normal notion…
that of the abnormal

You believe that God is one; you do well.
Even the demons believe—and shudder!
James 2:19

Faith of the birds

“The reason birds can fly and we can’t is simply that they have perfect faith, for to have faith is to have wings.”
J.M. BARRIE

I love my “flicker” which comes to visit the feeder–constantly. He, and no doubt offspring, are always 3 season residents to my yard. He’s big and a bit loud. Officially he’s known as a Yellow bellied sap sucker–a woodpecker of sorts. He also tends to be a bit shy so it’s a little difficult getting him to pose. My other birds don’t seem to mind or pay me any attention when I’m in the yard. The flicker however will either fly off or up into the tree until I become very still. Camera shy.

The quote today is by J. M. Barrie, the Scottish born author of Peter Pan. You know the story of Peter, Wendy, Capt. Hook, Tinker Bell, the Lost boys….my favorite adaptation being the movie Hook, starting two of my all time favorite actors, Robin William as Peter and Dustin Hoffman as Hook. The quintessential story of the jaded grown up man trying to recapture that innocence of youth.

Birds fly because they can. I suppose they believe that they can, so they do. It’s a pure acceptance of fact. As humans we don’t always possess that pure acceptance–our logic, reasoning and rational all seem to get in the way.

Children always seem to have such vivid imaginations because they haven’t lived long enough yet to have developed our adult jaded sense of reason and logic. I can remember thinking I could don a towel around my neck, my cape, and use it as a parachute as I jumped off of the top of the sliding board. I believed it would gently float me to the ground. Jump after jump, thud after thud, hard landing each and every time–my rational was that my towel was too heavy and perhaps a pillow case would do a better job as I just knew I could glide……

The whole story of Peter Pan, the boy who refused to grow up….because once he grew up, he’d lose his imagination, he’d forget how to play, he’d be unable to imagine, he’d forget how to fly….

Remember Jesus’s admonition to his disciples when he tells the men to allow the children to enter his presence–this after the men were trying to shoo the children away thinking they were just going to get in the way and bother Jesus…we tend to think children just get in the way of adult life….
Jesus goes on to say “I tell you the truth unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18: 2-4)

“humbles himself”—Humble: Adjective –Having or showing a modest or low estimate of one’s own importance.
Verb—Lower (someone) in dignity or importance

in essence—lacking ego, the know it all persona—it’s hard to have faith when one has more ego–

Children believe. Children tend to be humble. Children tend to have less ego than adults. Theirs is a simple uncomplicated belief system. Our’s, not so much.
Our faith, which is so often tried and tested from the trials and fires of life, takes a tremendous beating. We grow weak and weary. Then our ego steps in…..

We are reminded that “…faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1) and that “nothing will be impossible with God” (Luke 1:37)
and one of my favorite reminders….”You believe that God is one; you do well. Even demons believe–and shudder!” ( James 2:19) Yes, even that which is truly bad and awful knows the truth—and yet we proceed to doubt and deny anyway…..

I’m not telling you to believe that you can fly….the law of physics steps in that one….but what I am saying is that to believe in God is to have the ability of believing in the impossible. And for us to believe in the impossible is not an easy feat.

Today, I want to examine my faith–my ability to trust in and believe in that which I do not see. I believe in an omnipotent God that I do not see—but yet I do see—I see Him all around me—my flicker, my garden, my family, the sun that rises each morning and sets each evening….
Do bad things happen to me to rock that belief system? YES. Over the course of my life I have been known to get quite angry at my unseen God, scream and yell, walk away for a while—things here are wrong, not fair, tragic and sad–WHY???!!!

I don’t have the answers for all of that, and yet I know I can’t go on living without my Faith. I know that there is more to this life than just me and what happens in my world—things are all bigger than I am–things tend to be intertwined and woven together…beyond my comprehension….because I must surrender the ego of self and arrogance and remember simply as a child, that I am less and He is more—that I am created and He is Creator—I have to have Faith in that and in Him—or all of this is for naught and that is just terribly sad…I prefer to focus on the Faith of it all….

Here is to a faith filled Friday