Tyranny of Normality

I am under no illusions that I am normal, primarily because I don't think any such condition actually exists.

Presumably everyone thinks the things they do on a day to day basis are the right things for them - and thus they are normal, if only to that person.

I own around 2,000 CDs, all of them filed in alphabetical order so that I can find them when I want them. To me, that is normal. To others, it is a sign that I am some semi-autistic geek with an anal obsession for having The Beatles' albums stored in chronological order.

Despite being a professional wordsmith, I have to mentally flip through the alphabet to determine which letters follow each other - even though I learnt it more than 20 years ago.

But to this day, I can recite the full list of World Cup winners in the correct order without so much as missing a beat - and with only a little thought, I can also name the countries which staged the event, again in the right order.

And, as far as I am concerned, there is nothing abnormal about any of this. Which is why I don't think there's really any such thing as normal.

For sure, there are people like Jade Goody, raised by a one-armed lesbian junkie, who definitely do not fall into anyone's category of 'normal'.

But so long as each of us is happy in our own little way, who cares what's normal?

Please excuse me, I now have to go and catalogue the collected DVD works of Al Pacino.

(By the by, www.blogthings.com reckons I am 55% normal.)

You Are 55% Normal

While some of your behavior is quite normal... Other things you do are downright strange You've got a little of your freak going on But you mostly keep your weirdness to yourself

How Normal Are You?