Before you react to the title, let me say I don’t mean it in a weird way. I don’t have the ab(by) normal brain like the monster in “Young Frankenstein.” At least I don’t think I do.

It’s just that I’ve always thought of myself in a different way, probably the same way you may look at yourself.

I always wanted to be better than average. Normal is average.
And so it followed that normal is bad, different is good.

I used to want to be many different things – a professional athlete – in every sport; an actor; singer, the president, yes, of the US; a huge success; make millions. My list went on and on.

To me all of these were not normal.

It got to the point that when I was graduating high school and my friends were looking at career choices, I was lost. There were so many choices I couldn’t make up my mind.

So I told everyone I wanted to be a garbage man. Seriously I did.

Now nothing wrong with a sanitary engineer career but I just said it to be funny. And to shock my parents. Which I did.
Oh by the way, I should add comedian to the career list above.

Through it all, I wanted to stand out and not be normal.
Maybe it’s just the arrogance of my youth. I don’t know.

I can tell you now, though, I long to be normal. Just a regular guy.
Every day, I just want normal, no divergences, no distractions, no problems.
I want my weight to be normal, blood pressure, cholesterol, all those metabolic something or other – normal.
And I tend to freak when it’s not.

My kids would ask me what I’d like for my birthday or Father’s day and I used to tell them world peace.
Now it’s peace and quiet.

Must be a mature thing.
JT