I know it’s “normal” and I despise the word normal.

 My daughter is sorting and wrapping Christmas gifts. She’s got the music going, not Christmas thank God, and I can hear her humming to herself as she goes along. Periodically she comes down with boxes for the trash or in need of another roll of tape. All I can think of is skipping the Christmas stuff this year. 

Yes, I know the way I feel is “normal.” How I hate that word. Along with the words, nice, fine, and like, it has been so used and misused that folks have no idea of its true meaning.  Dictionary.com defines normal as, “conforming to the standard or the common type, the usual state, amount, level, etc.” The world uses normal to mean either the way things were before they changed or being like everyone else.  Since life is about change and no one or nothing is like everyone or everything else I’m thinking that normal, according to common usage, isn’t normal.

Of course that’s just me rambling on about nothing.  Other words and phrases that rub me the wrong way lately are “You just lost your husband,” and “He passes away.” I lose my glasses, phone, and keys all the time and I am sure that those losses don’t produce the same feelings as my husband’s death.  As for passing away. Fog passes away, storms pass away, and time certainly passes.  People however do not pass away, they die.  He’s dead, gone, not here anymore.  

I’ve decided to change careers and become a truck driver.  Sure I have trouble backing up my SUV and a semi might pose some challenges but what’s life if not challenging.  I figure that after I get my CDL I can drive from one part of the country to the other visiting my family and avoiding my life right here in good old Upstate New York.

Why do natives of Upstate New York make that distinction when they tell where they are? Because there is a large geography challenged portion of the population that think New York exists only in the five boroughs.  So to avoid being lumped with those downstate (see I did it again) we upstaters do our part to educate by distinguishing the geography of New York.