Friday, December 26, 2008

Social Construction- What is normal?

Greetings to everyone!
I hope that this message finds everyone in good health.
I have been really happy lately, and have been enjoying the quiet, New England winter weather. It's so beautful outside. I have gotten inspired by the rays of the sun, the relfection of the snow and the solitude. I have created so much romaniticism. I hope to feel this way forever.
I was inspired by Will Ferrell's beautiful singing in "Por Ti." I began to sing it this afternoon, while I was cleaning up in the kitchen at my faher's office after lunch. As I went out of the room and I went an octave higher, my older sister commented saying "You sound so weird," (since it was sudden). "People are going to think you're weird and not hang with you." She has been saying this to me about my behavior. The way I present myself. Every time we hang out, there is always something that she needs to criticize about me. The other night, when I went to my brother in laws mother's house (my sister's husband), I was just passionatly talking about diseases and how they "breed" around college campuses, since there are so many people (yes meningitis-- I was reading online about how this 1 year old girl in New Zealand developed it, and she had to get all of her apendages amputated). I was going to bring up the story about the little girl from New Zealand who had meningitis and ask how she got it (I mean I did not get my meningitis vaccination until I was 18, and I will probably be having children someday, and I would not like for them to get meningitis, so I want to do my best to prevent them from getting it). I always get very energetic, inquisitive and happy when I talk about something that I am inquisitive about.
My older sister saw me getting hyper. She then said lightly whispered, "That's enough Steph, stop monopolizing teh conversation." This was the last thing that I was going to talk about.
Earlier that same day, my father decided to take Charlotte and I out for lunch. I had just seen a really interesting show on the travel channel. One of the episodes was about all of these really unique ice cream shops across the US. Another episode was about steak shops. The other was about donuts (and it turns out that one of them they showed is located in Massachusetts, just right outside of Boston! :D). Here are the links to them if you are interested:
http://www.travelchannel.com/Travel_Ideas/Food_and_Wine/Ice_Cream_Paradise

http://www.travelchannel.com/Travel_Ideas/Food_and_Wine/Donut_Paradise


http://www.travelchannel.com/Travel_Ideas/Food_and_Wine/ci.Steak_Paradise.artTravelIdeasFmt?vgnextfmt=artTravelIdeasFmt

Anyways, I began to tell my father and my little sister about how much I loved the show and how I would love to check out some of these restaurants. Instead, my father and my sister both get annoyed, and tell me to stop talking. I really can't bear to stand that I can't even have a good conversation about something that I like. Most conversations with me are keeping out of trouble and making sure I stay afloat.
But back to my older sister Sharon. She then claimed that my singing makes other people feel uncomfortable, and made an analogy of my singing to someone getting undressed in public. This to me sounded ludacris. Getting undressed in public and singing out of the blue are polar opposites. I was not, have not and WILL NOT let her try to her anyone else think that what I am doing is socially unacceptable. To tell me that I am acting weird is socially constructed--created by someone with power, wanting society to immitate how they act.
Well what is normal? Normal is a state of mind. It's socially constructed. It's how you perceive the world. But the older I get, I come to realize that NO ONE is normal. So I almost feel like laughing when she tells me that I need to start acting normal. I've come to the point in my life wher I don't care what others think of me (with the exception of politics-- but then politics all comes down to the relationship between leaders, people with power-- not representative of myself nor anything that I have done in this life). I have goals, passions and love for myself, others and the world around me. I am positive-- I am not going to let someone's perception of me put me down. I am who I am-- if someone is not going to accept for who I am, then that' THEIR problem NOT mine. But even so, I wouldn't want to hang out with someone who was not going to accept certain parts of me.
People get to caught up on the little things.
I think the most important things that we should concentrate on are how peopel treat others and the earth; do they love others; can they learn to understand other people's pain? Do they go out to help others? End injustices?!
Now these are the things that matter. Not frettering over what is "normal."