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What is "normal" to you?
I was up late watching "Keeping up with the Kardashians" when one of the girls (I don't know any of their names) said that she just wanted to be normal. I thought to myself, "she is too rich to even have a realistic opinion about what is normal."
But what made me think, is that television distorts our view about what is actually normal. For instance MTV has a show that we've all seen and loved called "The Real World", (my favorite season being Vegas... But thats besides the point) but nothing about that show is actually the real world. The only time I've ever gotton a chance to live in a house with 7 or 8 people is when my cousins came over to visit! They also have a show called "My super Sweet 16" which makes you think that in some parts of America its normal for parents to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a petty birthday party!
Here goes some stunning facts (Hold on to your butts)... The average female with a bachelors degree or higher makes $36,532 per year (whoa), the average male with a bachelors degree or higher makes $49,303 (per year). The average family income (where both families have a bachelors degree or higher) is $73,446 per year. By the way if you have no degree these numbers are significantly less.
Just to get a bit deeper without loosing everybody. Only 1.5% of Americans make $250,000 or more per year. Which means as I'm watching "Keeping up with the Kardashians", that doesnt represent ANYTHING normal.
So what exactly is "normal" then? Is normal being able to live in Vegas with 4 or 5 of the hottest chicks ever? Is normal getting a bmw 645 when you're barely old enough to drive? Is it normal to spend half a million dollars on a wedding?
Or maybe... Just maybe normal is what you and I live out every day. Maybe normal is working hard for the things that you want to hold on to. Maybe normal is waking up early to get to work and staying late so that rent is paid, and you can eat for another night. Maybe normal is going to your second job so that you can keep the car note paid, the insurance paid, and gas in the car.
Perhaps what the television presents to us as normal is in fact just a fantasy. A fantasy that keeps us bound to a reality of life that is as fictional as a television writer can dream up. As the whole world focuses on 1.5% of the population and makes the other 98.5% of us feel inferior because we are, in fact, "Normal".
So the question today is very simple. What is "normal" to you?
But what made me think, is that television distorts our view about what is actually normal. For instance MTV has a show that we've all seen and loved called "The Real World", (my favorite season being Vegas... But thats besides the point) but nothing about that show is actually the real world. The only time I've ever gotton a chance to live in a house with 7 or 8 people is when my cousins came over to visit! They also have a show called "My super Sweet 16" which makes you think that in some parts of America its normal for parents to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a petty birthday party!
Here goes some stunning facts (Hold on to your butts)... The average female with a bachelors degree or higher makes $36,532 per year (whoa), the average male with a bachelors degree or higher makes $49,303 (per year). The average family income (where both families have a bachelors degree or higher) is $73,446 per year. By the way if you have no degree these numbers are significantly less.
Just to get a bit deeper without loosing everybody. Only 1.5% of Americans make $250,000 or more per year. Which means as I'm watching "Keeping up with the Kardashians", that doesnt represent ANYTHING normal.
So what exactly is "normal" then? Is normal being able to live in Vegas with 4 or 5 of the hottest chicks ever? Is normal getting a bmw 645 when you're barely old enough to drive? Is it normal to spend half a million dollars on a wedding?
Or maybe... Just maybe normal is what you and I live out every day. Maybe normal is working hard for the things that you want to hold on to. Maybe normal is waking up early to get to work and staying late so that rent is paid, and you can eat for another night. Maybe normal is going to your second job so that you can keep the car note paid, the insurance paid, and gas in the car.
Perhaps what the television presents to us as normal is in fact just a fantasy. A fantasy that keeps us bound to a reality of life that is as fictional as a television writer can dream up. As the whole world focuses on 1.5% of the population and makes the other 98.5% of us feel inferior because we are, in fact, "Normal".
So the question today is very simple. What is "normal" to you?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Rasheema on -
Normal is getting up around 4 am just to get my quiet time with God. Get myself and my daughter ready for the day and out the door by 7:20, 7:25 the latest. I like to send my daughter into her brother's room to wake him up. Still he manages to miss the bus. It's always something. He's at the age where "momma don't know nothing-leave me alone-but do what I say" age. (Okay, God you take over!) Anyway, drop my daughter off at daycare and be at work from 8-4:30 pm. Work isn't bad; just sometimes I don't want no mess. Let me listen to some sermons, my music, and let me hear from God. God is funny. It's mostly at work that I receive a quick message or vision. I laugh at myself sometimes because I have to hurry up and send myself an email about what I just heard or saw. If I don't then I'll forget and be upset with myself that I forgot. Anyway, I have to pick my daughter up by 5, but its usually between 4:45 and 4:50. We head home unless we need to make a stop at the store for dinner, accompanied by musical selections from Mickey Mouse or Clifford the Big Red Dog. Dinner is usually done by 6, the latest is 6:15. Bath time is at 7:30. We watch an hour of tv together and in bed by 9pm. Guess what? We get to do it all again tomorrow... unless it's the weekend. Then everything that we did not have time to do during the week we do on Saturday. Sunday is church which is beginning to be more like work and not ministry.
Someone once asked me if I watched Housewives of Atlanta (or whatever it's called) and they seemed surprised that I said no. One, if my daughter can't watch it then forget it. Two, I got my own reality why do I need to get into someone else's world?
In a nutshell, this is normal for me.
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Permalink Reply by LongLegged on -
Now, where I agree with you to where watching a show like "Keepin Up With The Kardashians" or any other reality series where that sort of lifestyle is lived, would not seem "normal" to you, but to some it is. I actually HAD to stop watching that show, "My Super Sweet Sixteen", not because I thought that it was not "normal" but because, I know that it actual is reality to some. Just because it is not MY reality does not mean it is not to more privilaged people. And that made me angry. In some because, to be honest, I was jealous and in another way because, even if I had the income and wealth to spend at a whim; I am not sure, if I would and/or could be that absent-minded when there are others in this world suffering.
In reality, which boards, "normal" - It is in the eye of the beholder. If you were born into wealth and view the lives, yes, that MOST American's live, you would see that as abnormal. Just as you looking into there lives and deeming it abnormal.
I might not agree with how some spend money and the views that they have in life but here is in interesting question. Am I to judge normal, who says that I am?
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Permalink Reply by Blacquejack on
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First off, "Normal" is dependent on where you live, what's normal in one culture is not necessarily normal in another, in fact, some thing are legal in one culture, but illegal in another!!!
"Normal" is also defined by the times you live in, for example, in the past it was "normal" that the mother stayed home with the children, it was also "Normal" for a house hold to survive on one income! (Funny thing how our governments around the world claim that our standard of living is better than ever!!!! less time with the children, work harder and longer!!!!)
I dare to say that "Normal" is an evelutionary thing, much like Art, it can not be defined.
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