Even if I could, why would I WANT to be normal?
Yesterday, when I was rushing to get out of my apartment and downtown to shoot some B-Roll for the next season of "Pieces of the Past" (which I'll discuss either tomorrow or Monday) I made a joke about not being "normal". As we all know, I'm really not, based on what I do, how I do it, and well, everything else in my life.
And, in all honesty, I wouldn't have it any other way.
It also reminds me of one of my dad's favorite stories to tell about me. Now, my dad has a TON of stories he likes to tell about me, but one of them involves a button I wore on a jacket pretty much the entire time I was in college. I even wore it pinned to my gown when I graduated 100,000 years ago. What did that button say?
“Why Be Normal?". And, just to make the point, "normal" was on the button upside down.
Much (I'm sure) to my dad's disappointment I lost the button shortly after college, but as you well know I've pretty much lived by its ethos since those days 100,000 years ago. I have not followed the "normal" path to adulthood (or whatever phase of my life I happen to be in right now). I have no house, no mortgage, no kids, no expensive toys, and no pretentious job title. Instead, I do stuff I love doing, I hang out with people who themselves are a bit askew, and, if given a choice of a zillion dollars or continuing to live the way I do, I know what the answer would be every single time.
"Normal" and "Jim" just don't seem to go together. Although I probably could do some good donating the zillion dollars to people who really need it.
I'm not quite sure at what point the slogan on the button stopped being a slogan and became a lifestyle; it was probably a gradual evolution over the years. But just between you & me, it's an evolution I wouldn't trade for the world. I'm sure for some people "normal" is all they've ever striven for and it's something that gives them comfort. If that's the case, good for them. I'm glad they have that in their lives.
But me? “Normal” is just not normal. Never has been, and I'm pretty sure it never will be. But I wouldn't change it for a thing. I LOVE how things have turned up, and I love the fact that they're still constantly changing and evoking, even at this late date in my life.
If you had told the college "me" that the phrase on the button would have become a slogan for life, I'm sure he would have chuckled a little, but inside would have been as cool as heck about it. I hope I'm doing him proud, even after all these years.
You take a lot of things from your college years with you. I guess in my case, the most important of those was a slogan on a button.
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