I wrote some lines that describe what normal is over means to me. It is a distillation of what I came away from three major life experiences with:
1. Rose Mu, the refugee widow who helped me understand that simple faith acted on is powerful. Complicated faith talked about is just an articulate form of deception.
2. My dad’s last days and the sting of regret he felt knowing that he was going to die before he even started to live. Dad’s story helped me understand the problem with fitting in and being normal.
3. My 22 year long romance with Oddny. She helped me set aside my fear of intimacy and openness to embrace my role as a husband, father, and friend on an entirely new level.
Ben Bowler and the guys at Moments of Intertia turned these lines into a song. Click here to hear it. (It’s the last song on the list)
NORMAL IS OVER
Normal= living for the approval of others, weak marriage, absent fatherhood, no real friends, living for the weekend while working a job you hate, spiritual ambivalence and cynicism peppering every thought about a better life. Normal is a dreamless and passive state of resignation. It is death posing as life.
set aside the burden
of others expectations
tear away now
from their intense manipulations
I don’t want to be normal
an animal in a tunnel
stuck in a cubicle
forced to be sensible
normal is a story with no moral
stop being defined by religion
conformed to convention
kiss goodbye the institution
join the revolution
you will die
will you live?
but you will get
will you give?
you will teach
will you ever learn?
you will fall
but will you fly?
How can I pray
what can i say
that rings a true note
that sings a true song
how do ya speak
or make a request
when so many words
seem so wrong (hold on)
get out of your guilt trip
and off your pulpit
don’t anesthetize me
or psycho analyze me
shrill cry
ask why
The tooth of a bear
he’s the crack of a gun
fearlessness
is in the heart of the son
he breaks steel cable
clips chain links
that bind to these stables
of meaningless routines
This river must grow
erode unquestioned belief
into world currents flow
a gush of life to some; to other grief
I don’t want to be normal
an animal in a tunnel
stuck in a cubicle
forced to be sensible
when light dim at night
normal me thinks to fight
the sun climbs the sky again
i wake to do whats right
but fail by noon
for normal has such might
you will die
will you live?
you will get
will you give?
you will teach
will you ever learn?
you will fall
but will you fly?
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