Time – part one?

I remember picking up the book The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason and how thought provoking the first line of the book was. It reads, “Funny thing about time, it weighs heaviest on those that have it least”. As soon as I finished that line I laid the book down and did not pick it back up until the next day. I’m sure you can see just how powerful, and true, that statement is. However this post is not a book review so I will leave that as it is.

Of all the things I ponder, the concept of time is probably the most prominent. In my opinion it is one of the most complicated concepts available for our thinking minds today. There are many reasons for this and I am sure that in the future I will touch on more of them but in this post I would like to focus on one: the various speeds at which time passes..

There have been many instances in my where I have felt time in various speeds. One I think of is when my wife was pregnant with our first child. It seemed like that nine months was NEVER going to end (looking back is a different story and probably a different post). Now she is pregnant with our second and it seems I can’t make it slow down for nothing. It seems like a week ago she took the test now we are way over half way home. It also seems like our 3-year old should be only be 1 but when my mom was in surgery a few weeks back those few hours seemed like days.

Obviously we all experience these type of situations but I still find it fascinating.

Normality and the 18-month-old

As defined by dictionary.com ‘normality’ means the following: conforming to the standard or the common type; usual; not abnormal; regular; natural. I suppose for adults this concept is easy enough, at least in a narrow sense. Some argue that normalcy cannot be defined except in specific contexts such as the economy of a nation or the functionality of a specific items. Take for instance the wobbly shopping carts at your local supermarket/superstore; they are acting outside the norm. Of course many people, my wife included, would argue they are the normal and those that actually will move in a straight line are, in fact, the odd ones out.

But I digress.

In abstract cases such as human behavior, I believe that normalcy is more difficult to pin-down. Actually I believe it does not exist; in other words what is good for the goose may or may not be good for the gander. When one person declares another abnormal, they are simply comparing that person to their own perceived view of themselves. If certain factors or certain number of factors differ, that person may be labeled ‘out of the norm.’ But let’s face it, no one considers themselves to be not normal, excluding the popular trends of today where individuals dress or act certain ways for the sole purpose of wanting others around them to label them as such. To some degree we all believe that our actions, likes, dislikes points-of-view etc are normal and if anything everyone that doesn’t see it our way our outside the norm.

But enough about abstractness.

One of the most fascinating things about watching my daughter grow up is to watch her develop her own sense or normality. For instance, she understands that daddy doesn’t always (or normally) walk around with a stuffed monkey on his head. Therefore when he does it is out of the ordinary and, evidently, very funny and deserving of a good laugh and a hug. Or when my mom comes to visit and my grandmother is not with her, she knows that situation is odd and reacts to it. Recently I was giving her a bath and she was playing with a set of cups that come in various sizes and colors that allow you to stack or nest them. This time however she only wanted to put them on her feet. The entire bath she wanted them on her feet. She would work diligently to get them to stay then look up at me waiting; she knew this was different, out of sorts and deserving of a reaction of some sort. I acknowledged the change with a smile and comment, she went on with her bath the whole time making sure the cups were on her feet. The most fascinating thing about this exercise was the realization that even at her age and mental capacity she is beginning to formulate her own sense of normality and recognizes when something contradicts that. She is her own person with her own reality.

That being said the next time she laughs at me for having a monkey on my head I won’t take it as abnormality, I’ll take it with a giggle and a hug.