Not Normal

Normal, according to a definition of the word, is generally speaking, things or creatures that do not depart from the regular, usual, expected state. I suppose that means that because a whole load of matters or beings that do similar things with similar results are normal, everything else is not. It sets one to wondering how this applies. There is normal behaviour but the rules change.  What used to be  rude table manners such as picking up a chicken leg with the fingers is now normal. In medieval times it was normal, then it went out of style and became bad decorum but now it is back to normal. So normal fluctuates. Normal speech used to be The King's English in certain places and French, but now normal speech can be the two languages plus a host of others we hear all around us. Normal applies to all sorts of situations. What is mystifying, is that some normal people go out of their way to find things that are not normal. They look for curiosities and rarities: things that depart from the normal and become valuable because of it.  A stamp or coin that is formed in an abnormal way is sought after. Designed objects: buildings, art works, are admired when they are unusual and different. People want to depart from the normal by dressing uniquely or choosing to attempt to do something out of the normal range or try to create an invention that departs from the norm. If this is true, why does human nature cluck its tongue at some whose behaviour for a physical or mental reason, cannot be "normal". Why can't we say "hello" or "how are you today?" Street people live in a way that is often scorned or pitied. Those with mental aberrations are stared at or shunned. Persons with physical departures from what looks normal are politely avoided. Youngsters with difficult physical or social problems are outcast by their peers or ridiculed by them. So it appears that we pick and choose which abnormals are suitable and which are not. Our society appears to list them on a popularity scale of normal or not. It would be a fine place if we could accept, other than hurtful destructive behaviours, all the people who are ugly, fat, deranged, crippled, maimed, different and mentally afflicted who, in truth, own part of the same world that we do and have every right to be here in their own special way and to be normal.