It’s a question we subconsciously put to ourselves and others every day. We often want to know if something is normal. Often the barometer used for measuring normalcy is the opinions of others, rather than a scientific fact, but we use what is quickly and readily available to us to measure what is normal or acceptable.
Eating breakfast every morning is normal for me. I always have the same breakfast during the week, and the changes I make on the weekends are the same, consistent variations every weekend. That, for me, is normal. Somebody may look at my breakfast, however, and deem it abnormal. They may think I eat too many carbs or too much sugar, and they might be armed with an armful of books disputing my choice of breakfast. On the other hand, they may eat bean sprouts for breakfast, which for me would be rather abnormal.
I wear shoes with thicker soles when it rains, because I think it helps keep water from puddles out of my shoes. The idea of wearing flip-flops in rainy weather would not be normal for me, and I can’t understand why anybody else would willingly walk around in flip-flops when it’s raining. Rain water carries germs and bacteria, and people walking in flip-flops then carry that contamination into public places and into their own homes. That, for me, would be pleasant. Public places sometimes accept summer clothing choices which may not be in the best interest of other people, simply in hopes of receiving the offenders’ business. Wearing flip-flops as footwear other than for beaches or swimming pools might be accepted as normal, but it may not be truly acceptable behavior everywhere.
Churches are having issues about attendees wearing more casual attire when coming to services. But then, sometimes congregants come in without having had breakfast, either. What we accept as normal has been changing quite a bit lately. Every day we ask ourselves what lines we will cross to get through another day, and it becomes harder to tighten the restrictions and easier to accept a new normalcy.
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