The Holiday season comes along with lots of with family time. Time sent with parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, the whole nine yards. The holidays are often based in extreme family traditions, even when the people change, the traditions don’t. The best part, each family has their own set. Each set of traditions rooted in what that one family considers “normal." This idea of what constitutes “normal” was brought to my attention by my wonderful grandmother.
We were sitting at my uncle’s house watching my two-year-old cousin play "doctor" with her Curious George stuffed animal, while my Aunt was casually asking if anyone had any plastic fruit they wanted to send her. She was talking about dressing up as a Zombie Carmen Miranda for the Zombie Bike Parade in Key West where she now lives. I couldn’t help but laugh. How funny it was for me to picture my aunt with a headdress full of fruit, face painted like a zombie, pedaling down the streets of Key West. To her it was “normal." That’s just what the people in Key West do, have Zombie Bike Parades. Just like how in the Eriksen house we decorate our Christmas Tree with lots and lots of lights. It’s the same concept but on a slightly different scale. Back at my Uncle’s house, my Nana looked over at me and said “That would be something fun to write about.”
What is normal?
We use normal as a blanket term to explain behavior and behavior patterns deemed acceptable. Normal is a standard, an expected or typical reaction. Yet I’m sure most of us would describe our family as not normal. Is anyone? Who set the standard for normality to begin with? Collective behavior it would seem. Everyone brushes their teeth twice a day, that’s normal. (Well if you ask my dad not everyone brushes their teeth twice a day, but that’s another story). Yet if someone does any less or anymore its abnormal. That person becomes weird. Here in Massachusetts, and probably back in Pennsylvania, it would be so strange to see a parade of Zombie Bikers. In Key West, it would be weird to hear someone order a medium regular and it have cream and sugar. In Key West it would be absurd to hear someone say “Yinz." Yet in it’s correct geographical location these things are part of the culture. They have been accepted as normal.
We set what is normal. We decide, based on how we treat others and how we view the world around us. Recognizing that what is normal for me here, now, in this place, is not normal for you, where ever you may be. Just like each family has their own holiday traditions like lights on a Christmas tree and getting Dunks on Christmas morning to eating Chinese food on New Years. No matter how crazy, your family traditions are a reflection of your family and what you think is “normal” and that is something I think we should all be proud of. Set out to be our own version of normal.
