Longing for a new normal

Normal. The invisible force defining our thoughts and actions. The safe house each human is consciously or subconsciously is trying to make it to. The comfortable place where you don’t have to be worried about being judged, where you are surrounded by likeness. The road in which you don’t have to look both ways, because all traffic is moving in the same direction. Normal.

But what is this normal? Surely something so pivotal to life as we know it must have a clear definition. But when asked, it is not so easy to put into words. Something so heavily influencing the heart and mind, yet something the heart and mind can’t clearly define. Normal.

Perhaps we can’t easily quantify it. But we can see its effects all around us. Every decision we make is based around some loose definition, some invisible standard of what we should do in that situation.

Normal is something that we get so accustomed to, we don’t even think about. But let me ask, where do the standards of this normal come from? If this pressure of normality is so strong that even the strongest human cannot evade it, surly the authority behind it must be just as big. But here is where we come to the biggest irony of all. The fearful authority, the boss behind the madness, is in fact, humanity. The very pressure weighing on humans is controlled by humans. The very thing that controls us, we control. Yet, most people go through life without ever realizing this revolutionizing truth. We go through life thinking we are bound by the standards of society, and it is a burden to keep them. Few come to the understanding that these standards, this pressure, this state of normal is whatever we define it as.

I am longing for a new normal.

I am tired of this pressure telling me I need to be something I don’t want to be, and do things I don’t want to do. I am tired of this normal telling me that loving God is wrong. I am tired of this normal complaining about the world.

We complain about how music is degrading to women, but we still listen to it. We complain about how young kkids are being scandalous, but we continue to buy Cosmopolitan. We say that society is pressuring us to be thin, but we idolize Victoria’s Secret models. We complain about how there are no good men out there, how they don’t treat women like they used to, but we allow men to treat us like crap and get away with it. We complain about how evil the world is, but we do nothing to stop it. And so, this is how we have defined our normal. We can act like we don’t like it, but in reality, we are endorsing it, we are defining it this way. And so long as we continue feeding it, it will continue to thrive. If no one listened to degrading music, it wouldn’t be popular. If no one bought magazines that featured half naked women, they wouldn’t be promoted. If no one idolized skinny, it wouldn’t be beautiful. If we raised our standards for men, we would force them to raise theirs. If we fight against evil in the world, perhaps we will see a change.

You may ask, what can one person do? This is a legitimate question. One can get lost in the thought of changing an entire culture, an entire standard for normal. Think of it this way. A symphony is made up of hundreds of instruments, each playing their own part, but together creating a masterpiece. Even so, one voice is part of a multitute of voices creating a collective shout for change, yet without each individual voice, would not be heard.

The moment we lose confidence in the power of many on one accord is the moment we lose power for change. The moment we silence our voice for fear it won’t be heard is the moment we inevitable silence those who are afraid to speak.

I am longing for a new normal. Are you?