My Son: My Sun

It’s that what dims the light of the sun.

That which makes the moon a little less bright.

Which soothes my nerves better than the coming and going of waves.

Which melts my heart more than watching a cat suckle her kittens.

That which makes me skip a beat more than going through an old picture album.

Makes me more proud than earning a promotion.

Makes me soften from head to toe, and within.

And that’s your angelic smile, my son.

I hope and pray that God gives me the strength and faith to keep it strong till I am bodily around, and beyond.

Being “Norm”al

“Can’t you just be normal?”

“Why do you have to be like this? Just behave normally!”

“The more normal you act, the more acceptance you get in society.”

Well, it just crossed my mind today, what exactly being “normal” is all about? A normal person. A normal life. A normal family. A normal job. Normal dreams. What’s all this hue and cry about being normal? What is normal anyway? Normal is something which everyone identifies with. Something which is routine, commonplace, clichèd, same as everyone else, not unique and let’s face it – plain boring! Normal has the word “norm” in it, which equates to following the rules, rules set by the society, and society which is nothing but a bunch of people who have somehow taken the responsibility of the complete human race to decide on the protocol. This society demands us to be “norm”al.

I only wonder about one thing – isn’t normality relative? What might be normal for me won’t be normal for someone else. There’s this nook of comfortable, non-controversiality which drives each one of us to be a certain normal way, the unit of which is preset by people (the same people, of course!).

More often than not, this normality is unfortunately directly proportional to morality in our world. If you don’t follow the norms, you are immoral. If you don’t live by certain predefined standards, you lack character. If you have dreams which are different from an average “normal” human being, you are beyond repair. And God forbid, if you are set on fulfilling your dreams, prepare to become an outcast!

If you do anything not close enough to being normal, they’ll talk about you – not nice things, let me warn you. That’s because they have already decided that talking ill about someone, judging someone for their decisions and making fun of someone’s choices is totally normal and acceptable.

So, being normal is just a comfort zone where you’ll lead a peaceful life. You’ll be well accepted. People will talk to you, rather than about you. And that would be perfect, right?

Wrong!

We were all wired differently for a reason, so that each one of us shines with our own light. If all the stars twinkled at the same distance with the same intensity, stargazing would never have been a mystifying experience. Why don’t we spend hours at end watching rows of street lights? They are bright too. It’s the variety and still the ability to twinkle as one unit is what makes stars beautiful together, which the street lights lack completely.

So, the choice stays with you. Shine stably or twinkle awkwardly?