I can imagine the kind of normal you allude to is what presented itself as such while we were growing up. Perhaps not though. Which kind of makes the whole notion of normal subjective. The normal life I live now has been viewed by some people as limited in scope. That's because I read and write a lot. 30-40 years ago, I probably would have thought the same thing. Aging changes everything. I think all a 'normal' person can do is be true to oneself, self-examine regularly, ground yourself, love and respect others, and keep creating. Enjoyed this. Love the pic. R

When compared to our ancestors, our lives are relatively tame and repetitive. All we have to do is look at the 19th century with so many fleeing Europe, leaving oppressive rulers with no money and fighting indigenous people for land they thought was "free to take." And in the 20th century, two world wars, the Great Depression, the fear of nuclear war and many other perils, along with upward mobility for so many when it was never possible in centuries earlier.

As a result of the free time given us by our global corporate system, we seek extremes to add spice to our rather bland existence. Why we create "bucket lists," engage in seeking out Internet extremes, go to big-budget "blockbuster" movies with lots of violence, become fans of violent sports and pretend things are violent or extreme from the few examples of real violence or extreme behavior there are from the "breaking" news, or worse, contrived rumors or lies.

Like your poem suggests, just simply enjoying the simple things in life, with constant bombardment from so-called friends and family demands on our cell phones, very few enjoy watching a leaf fall from a tree or a frog catch a fly anymore. Yet we long for what we think were better times in the past when real peril required someone to stay awake at night to ward off whatever was coming. Instead, we can't go to sleep because of all the noise in our brains from all of the Internet paranoia driving us.

More or less, we need to go to our own Walden Pond, where Thoreau observed, "Most men [and women] lead lives of quiet desperation."

I just read an article where researchers are finding out that psychedelics like LSD, can, in as little as one session with a therapist, can rearrange our brains' noise and make our fears go away, open ourselves to the little things and a better understanding of other people, letting them in. Researchers on PTSD with veterans have found that their PTSD goes away and they feel better right away.

Ron

The title of this is the maximumly-appropriate terminology. Excessive everything is depicted in those three words. And a very ‘fresh’ phrase, “Sending normal to the showers?” As if ‘normal’ isn’t good enough. I like the theme of this and the examples of “quiet joy” and “robust enthusiasm” and the manner in which ‘value’ found in simplicity is written of here. Also, your examples of the ‘rejection’ being exact opposite of ‘awareness, acceptance, and appreciateion’ being the punishment of a pet for being itself….well that is perfect. Crack on ~~ djl