The Rock of Norm : Prologue

Quite often we seek for heaven and joys in all the unlikely places. When we stop we realize its always been right here in the ordinary. The word ' norm ' applies itself to a condition and situation in our personal reflection of issues. It is that with which we consider something as normal or as extraordinary. It is the basis of meaning, views and the decisions we make in our lives.

On a soccer field the expression ' what a great pass ' comes to mean a kick that virtually lands at the feet of another player. In a bar a man walking up to a woman and quipping ' You look heavenly,' may also be considered as making a pass. The location, the situation, the act performed ... each convey a part in the meaning we attach to the event.

Each one of us goes through life with a collection of such variations in meaning and nuance. We need a place to store that in us. It is highly personal and is the ultimate private nature of what we are as individuals. It is based on a perception and experience of the world that is collectively undertaken by the sum total of lives we have lived before. It certainly is not the work and action of one person in a single lifetime.

In such circumstances we, as individuals, create a relation to that in us, which we consider is the world. We are seldom able to take full responsibility for it and quite often are unable to explain it to ourselves. There must have been a time when we had viewed such an experience as normal. These days we figure we should know it all ... at least with regards to our individual natures.

We do that with a little play, a thespian attitude and the support of our own experiences. This is quite affirmatively norm in these times. We wonder therefore about the crushing sense of inquiry we sometimes make into issues we figure we ought to know better. Our work sometimes plays a part, our social decorum and regard, our hopes and sometimes love's attachment. 

Of all these, there is one that stays obsessed the longest. That is the one experience we encountered which we thought was impossible and never created an anticipation. It is shock ... more than ... anything we might refer to as obsession. It robs us of the natural flow of life in the most private part of what we are. It raises an endless stream of questions. We need to deal with that. We need to find the norm again ... even if that means coming to accept what we thought impossible as norm.