June 12, 2007
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Definitions and Limitations
I know I have blogged about “normal” before, even recently, but it keeps coming up. Both Timages and wixer have brought up the word, “normal,” in the last day or two. Knowing me pretty well already, and being a fellow aficionado of semantics and reader of dictionaries, wixer wrote in response to the latest astrological post, “My word! your chart is all in one spot! Is that normal? Ok… for you, semi-normal?”
Timages and I are engaged in an exchange of messages that began when he responded to my surreal dead moose images by calling them, “icky.” Then he said he supposed they were “normal” for this geographical area and my lifestyle. I replied, “I don’t want to mislead anyone. I am not normal, even for this place.
My neighbors would agree with you on the ickiness of that subject. ‘Ick,’ is just not in my working vocabulary.”In his response, he tried to reassure me that I am normal, and explained that in France, where he is, “ces’t pas normale,” is a widely used criticism or judgment cast on anything that meets with disapproval. Poor man, never having been on the receiving end of my “normal” rant, he’s going to get it now. My latest message to him says, in part:
I used to resent being called “normal”, since my IQ is in the high 99th
percentile and I have had to work so hard to have a relatively normal
life in spite of many physical challenges normal people needn’t contend
with. Now, when anyone mistakes me for normal, I simply, calmly, correct
his misconception. I have never been normal, and as a small child I
once came crying to my father when some other children were teasing me
about one of my abnormalities. He told me there is no virtue in being
just like everyone else.Google lists dozens of definitions, some of them quite technical in the fields of mathematics and statistics, but for most social purposes one will suffice.
Definitions of normal on the Web:
- being
approximately average or within certain limits in e.g. intelligence and
development; “a perfectly normal child”; “of normal intelligence”; “the
most normal person I’ve ever met”I don’t care what anyone says. I AM NOT NORMAL! Get over it. I like it this way.
And, Gail, no, my chart does not have a “normal” configuration. The average person’s planets are scattered around the wheel, but I was born at a time when most of them were clustered in Virgo and Libra. That was a hot time of the Second World War, the first big war to come after the Great War to End All Wars. In September, 1944, Finland signed the Moscow armistice, joined the Allies and began expelling German troops; Allied troops were advancing across Southern France toward Germany; and MacArthur’s forces were taking Borneo and the Philippines. Heavy times for the entire planet, it was the very dawning of the Baby Boom. The only major planets not in Virgo or Libra were Uranus in Gemini and Pluto in Leo.
I am accepting and learning to work around the video limitations imposed by economic constraints and my slow internet connection. I had to edit my first two videos down to five seconds or less in order to get each one uploaded before having the connection interrupted. I have decided to face the challenge of producing five-second videos. Making a five-second video isn’t hard. The challenge will be to make them interesting and meaningful.In my latest effort, the second, I was trying out the audio track and attempting to capture the way the wind waves the tall grass around. A few Xangans have commented, over the years, that they feel they can hear my voice in my writing. Now they will get a chance to find out if my real voice is anything like they imagined it to be.
As I was recording, I also picked up some unidentified birdsong. If any one knows what kind of bird it is, please let me know.
- being
Comments (11)
Re: charts
I’m not an expert by any means, but I am ridiculously curious and therefore have collected charts from many people… From what I can tell, there is no real ‘normal’ for a natal chart. There are a lot of styles of charts that are common, but I think that determining whether someone’s natal chart is truly ‘unusual’ would require analysis of at least thousands of charts.
Mine is spread all over the place. But I think every Scorpio I know has theirs all bunched up in one corner, just like yours.
It’s nifty stuff, that’s for sure…
But gah, who the hell would want to be ‘normal’?
Statistically, it is highly unusual for all or even most of the planets to be bunched or aligned in one part of the zodiac. Historically, the times of major alignments have been times of major events on the planet. Since, over the course of time, births are fairly evenly distributed, the “average” natal chart will reflect a “normal” distribution of planets.
Perhaps I should have used the word “usual” rather than “normal”. The chart really did look strange to me in that the few that I have seen are more …. ummm I’m sure there’s a word that describes the configuration other than “random” or “scattered”.
How perceptive of you to think of Lara Fabian & Josh Groban as similar in vocal styles and quality. They have sung several duets. One of them is also in my “fives”; For Always. I uploaded it so you will be able to see how well their voices blend. I hope you appreciate it as much as I do.
For Always
RYC, I don’t recognize the birdsong. Sorry!
Ah, ok… Gotcha.
What annoys me isn’t that someone says I’m normal, but that they do it to try and reassure me that everything’s OK.
Why would I want to be ‘normal,’ for its own sake? Outliers are much more interesting.
What is normal? And who defines it? I don’t know what bird that is, but it has a beautiful song.
For my own sense of peace I have found that we all more often have things in common than not. That is what normal means to me. Nothing more and nothing less. Thank you for a thought provoking blog and I enjoyed the wind in the video very much.
I have rarely had the issue in my life of people calling me normal. I don’t know if I would feel blessed or cursed. Anyways, I don’t know anything about the effects of planets or stars in my life. All I know is that my next birthday will be 07-07-07. How’s that for alignment?
I dropped in to take a look as i was sure that you post a lot more interesting stuff than just the photo challenge things, I was RIGHT! i hav’nt read all but i found a lot of imforative reading, about where you are and about yourselfe and possibly myself too, i saw “ADD” mentioned, my partner has ADD,and any infomation i can find on that suject is always good and maybe will help keep me sane. About the “ces’t pas normale” thing , that really does piss me off when i hear it, i think normal has so many different meanings to so many different people I dont think they have the right to tell me or anyone else what is normal or not, and i stick by what i said “You are what you is” and thats it,if that means you are not normal then so be it, thats fine with me, i dont think i’m normal either, not by the standards that the “normal” people (whoever they are) lay down, When you said “Poor man, never having been on the receiving end of my “normal” rant, he’s going to get it now” thats when i hit the subscribe link, I’m happy to know you,
Tim
As the welcome note someone kindly placed on my mobile phone says “normal is just a setting on the washing machine.”