Why Be Normal

 


Featured work: Whirly - Gig

I have a magnet on my magnet board that says Why Be Normal? I have always thought that artwork that matches the pillows on your sofa is a normal thing to do. As an artist I often find myself asking, WHY do people like to be normal? Like a wind-up toy. Someone winds up your key, and you just waddle about like everyone else. You don't have to think for yourself—it is easier if someone else thinks for you.

Just take the blue pill like in the movie The Matrix where taking the blue pill means the story ends, and you wake up in your bed believing whatever you want to believe. It allows you to return to the blissful ignorance of everyday life and avoid having to think about or question reality. Everything is blissfully normal and boring. Normality doesn't celebrate differences. Normal rarely changes.

But things do change. We are not merely different; we are unique—one of a kind, one in a million. There are millions of us, yet each of us is singular. We were never meant to be windup toys, moving through life exactly alike or pretending to be "normal." Normal is familiar, safe, and easy, so we often cling to it. Yet being unique, different, and independent should not feel uncomfortable; it should feel beautiful, wonderful, and glorious, like a work of art. We are all works of art, and we should live that way: creatively, courageously, and outside the box. We should take risks and never allow anyone else to wind us up and set our direction. Stepping beyond normal requires a deep understanding of who you are and where you come from. Difference is not something to fear. It is freedom.

I remember watching the Star Wars movie, The Wrath of Kahn. Spock was dying and he spoke his famous words, "Logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." Captain Kirk answers, "Or the one."

Personally, I believe that the one, the one-in-a-million, far outweighs the many. The one could change the world. The many, the matchy-matchy sofa and pillows, the normal—they don't change the world. They are merely robots that have lost their power and given it away to another and are followers of the one who uses them. Don't let another make you a windup toy. Celebrate your uniqueness. Creating your own life makes it a work of art. As an artist I celebrate when the one-in-a-million happens. I celebrate the difference it generates.

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