The word came from the Latin ‘normalis’, which means ‘made according to a carpenter's square, forming a right angle.’ Normalis had a number of extended meanings, such as ‘according to rule’.
In present day, ‘normal’ is most often used to mean ‘conforming to a type, standard, or regular pattern’. But types, standards, regular patterns or what is considered ‘regular’ undoubtedly shift, and even when static are largely subjective things.
‘What is normal?’ is a question that has been posed innumerable times in rhetorical and non-rhetorical functions. The role of this question is to show how certain widely accepted concepts are merely recent social constructs, and that what is considered ‘normal’ is a fluid sort of thing.
Lexically, the definition of ‘normal’ has continued to change and grow, and today may also mean (among many other things) ‘occurring naturally’. Hence what occurs naturally is normal and we should accept it as such.
Too often, too many of us are judgemental in deciding what is normal. We see things around in a restrictive view coloured by conditioning. We must learn to accept everything (and everyone) that occurs naturally as normal.
We must learn to be inclusive towards diversity. And for that we have to stop looking at ‘normal’ as a prejudiced view. We must accept that both, the different and the new, is as ‘normal’ as the similar and the old.
Let ‘normal’ be a fluid sort of view
Don’t deride things diverse & new!
- Pravin K. Sabnis
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