Normalize
Return to normal. Here in Vermont, we are 81% vaccinated and, in public, one can hardly tell that the last year and a half was a catastrophic piece of history AND still is for a large percentage of the globe. June and 80 degrees with a 18 knot south wind blowing down the lake. Sunshine...
The sense of stepping back from a cliff is almost palpable. The heightened receptor state, hiding out, masks nonstop, constant alcohol scent, flight mode, is gone. Replaced by a comforting flatness...
But normal? What exactly does that mean? Keep your eyes open for the phrase "the new normal". Oxymoron? Climate change manifesting as a heat wave last week brought over 100 degrees to 40 million Americans with temperatures between 15 and 30 degrees above normal. Oregon, 116?! Palm Springs hit 120. Maybe they need a new name for the town. Hell's Parking Lot? Furnace No Creek? Skillet? How can normal be new? It wouldn't be normal if it's new. New is new.
Closer to home, is it normal for me to hand rub a piece of titanium sheet for an hour, once or twice a week? Is that normal behavior? The finish I'm trying to get can't come from a whirling or vibrating machine. This is the path. It's my "normal," however absurd it may appear to "normal" people. Certainly has an effect on my arms that isn't exactly normal. But the lack of drama, even in the subtle sheen of a metal slab... its literal flatness... feels nice.
Farther from home, an astrophysicist, a woman, definitely not historically "normal" in that profession, has discovered an anomaly in the structure of the universe. The Giant Arc is a group of galaxies so massive that our standard conceptual framework of the universe, based on a relatively consistent distribution of matter and energy in all directions, is shattered. The Giant Arc is 3.3 billion light years across or one fifteenth the radius of the entire visible universe. It is three times bigger than anything should be out there. The accepted cosmological principle created by decades of observation and calculations requires even distribution and consistent expansion based on precise mathematical models. Lumps or structures of this scale suggest... Spin? Directionality? Organization? Grain? This doesn't seem normal at all. But isn't stuff in deep space sort of the definition of normal? (Wait. What?! Dark matter, quasars, black holes, lightning on Saturn...) It has zero to do with human value judgments...
And now, from within, normal, apparently, is flexible and personal and therefore can't be considered an absolute, like unique, every, the best, perfection, etc. Is it normal to go out on a lake with three to four foot waves and surf downwind for an hour and a half? Yep. That's a normal I am heading out to do right now. I strongly recommend making such behaviors normal. Making art, for instance, is far from a normal job. But it is mine. Then again, I am far from being normal. Cursed and blessed. But, I will say, some evenness, lack of an imposed, external system of edges, feels, mellow. Dancing with gravity on my board is personal and perilous, but I'm very unlikely to die... Controlled peril, losing a point, losing a set, is so very different from losing the whole match. Normal feels nice, like we know its parameters and are comfortable with them. Welcome back.
Cheers to high summer and long days. Obviously, we don't know all the bits in the universe, cell sized or galactic. Best savor these warm breezes. The Tour is on. Walk the dog. Hug your everyones. Kick back on the deck after the sweating and weigh the universal questions with your peeps. These are blessings taken a smidge less for granted, I do believe.
Normal people buy art, but my favorites are the extraordinary people who buy extraordinary art. Let's normalize that.
Peace out,
And in,
B Mac
P.S. Check out Sam Harris, Julie Mehretu, and consider the Tralfamadorians' perspective. Pry open new neural pathways, today. Can't hurt. Normalize extraordinary, even though you can't.
