Normal and Abnormal

Each person’s unique DNA makes us all different in every which way:

1. We all look different with unique finger prints that can used as personal identification,

2. We all think differently and want different things from life,

3. We all have different capabilities waiting to be developed and exploited, etc.

   We all have a lot in common:

1. We need food to quench the hunger,

2. We need to mate to satisfy the sex urge,

3. We want to understand how and why things are as driven by the curiosity,

4. We want to have friends and family as we cannot stand loneliness, etc.

   Today, a person can find all one’s need in the society where a person’s basic right to receive education, to have equal employment opportunity, to marry and start a family are protected under the law of the land. But, for a small group of people – the genius, the mentally challenged, the physically gifted, those born with disability, the sexually ambiguous, etc – they have to find their own ways to satisfy their needs. They are the abnormal subsisting in a man-made world built to accommodate the normal, all those who are able to navigate the public, business, and financial infrastructures with minimum assistance.

Genius and Mentally Challenged

Most of the people are born with average intelligence. They are able to learn to read and write the native language, understand what is going on around them, and earn a living to support an independent life. A rare few are born with a talent to alter the normal course of the human civilization by introducing new, better, and revolutionary means of doing things. Their initiatives and ideas are normally met with ridicules and skepticisms. It is only through their persistence and tinkering that transform wild ideas to workable, sometimes, life changing reality. On the other end of the scale, there are the people who are born mentally challenged who lack the minimum intelligence to carry out the very basic functions of living – eat, sleep, and hygiene. Only with adult supervision, can they expect to live a quality life.

Physically Gifted and Disabled

Most people are born with a normal healthy body. With the good hand and eye coordination, strength and energy, they are able to enjoy a normal competitive sport activity in their spare times. Some have the opportunity to receive coaching and extra training to elevate their ability and skill, thus, enabling them to compete in the professional stage. In the professional world, they will discover their physical limits and meet people with super human abilities who can do things with their body that they can only dream about. These gifted athletes are a rarity, a freak of Nature as every part of their body is seamlessly put together that maximizes their capability. When there is perfection, there is also life altering mistake. The result is that there are people who are born with physical defects that will make daily activities – getting up, eating, and or walking around, etc. – a challenge.

Sexual Ambiguity

Most people are born with a normal sex identity. They are physically attracted to the opposite sex. When they reach adulthood, they will have the urge to seek a mate to reproduce and start a family. The marriage between a man and woman is crucial for the survival of the human species. As a result, this marital union is encouraged and protected by the law of the land. Not every marriage lasts forever. As the physical attraction and libido wear thin, its survival depends on mutual respect and understanding of each other’s feelings and needs, and or the depth of the family value and bonding. But, for an unlucky minority who are born with an unclear sex identity, they are facing a life of confusion, loneliness, and discrimination. It is confusing when a person finds that one is physically attracted to the same sex, or one’s body should be that of the opposite sex. It is lonely as it is difficult to find another person with the same sexual preference not to mention the chance of falling in love. Due to ignorance or misinformation, homosexuality and transgender are discriminated against and considered social diseases that can be cured with drugs and or re-education.

Uncommon Problems

Based on the understanding of how the human DNA (the blueprint that determines what and who the person will be like) is made up, it is not surprising that most people are born normal while a tiny small group is born abnormal. No one can control whether one is in the majority or the minority but to live the life one is dealt with to its fullness. Whether a person is normal or abnormal, the person’s life is about facing and solving uncommon problems. The abnormal person’s problems are due mostly to what the person is. The normal person’s problems arise mostly because who the person is. Problems that normal people may experience like nasty divorce involving children, traffic accident resulting in serious injury, lawsuits that threaten livelihood, sickness that requires intrusive surgery, sexual harassment at work, etc. are just as physically exhausting, emotionally draining, and life changing. Whether a person is born normal or abnormal one can always be sure that there are uncommon problems waiting to challenge, motivate, deflate, and or enrich one’s life.