"The possibility of stepping into a higher plane is quite real for everyone.  It requires no force or effort or sacrifice.  It involves little more than changing our ideas about what is normal."  Deepak Chopra I was asked recently to teach a class in Abnormal Psychology.  A simple request really.

Except that it isn't.  At least not for me.  Nothing ever is.  Simple, I mean. Because it begs the question...

What is normal?

The other day we were having another "moment" with the alien who inhabits my oldest son's body.  "You are exceptional," I challenged him channeling my very best Marianne Williamson.  "You are smart and talented and creative and wonderful.  Be exceptional."

"Mom," he said flatly, "I don't want to be exceptional, I just want to be normal."

See what I mean?  What, exactly, does "being normal" entail?

Is being normal doing what everyone else does?  Is it walking the same path that has been trod on many times before?  Is being normal going along with the flow, not challenging oneself and others to something better?  Does being normal mean keeping silent, even in the face of things that challenge what we hold dear?  Should we stop taking risks or having dreams or standing out in the crowd just because it isn't the way everyone else is doing it?

Was Albert Einstein normal?  Vincent Van Gogh?  Martin Luther King?  Rosa Parks?

"Everyone else is doing it", my kids tell me.  "It's not a big deal", they say.  "Just go with the flow", they coax, all the while grumbling about the fairness of having a mother who never does.  "Why can't you just be a normal mom?" they wonder aloud.

In the classroom I wonder how to teach more than just the subject at hand.  It seems important to do more.  To teach life lessons rather than just theory.  "We are a community," I tell my students.  "This experience is about more than just papers and exams and a final grade."

Take the time to watch this.  It is part of a documentary called "Children Full of Life".  Children who are lucky enough to have a teacher that understands the chance he has to make a difference in the lives of others.  To teach lessons that are not learned in textbooks.  Lessons about life and friendship and honesty and courage. Toshiro Kanamori is not a normal teacher.

Let's be something else.  Something next to normal.  Let's strive to be the exceptional people we were all meant to be.

Let's not be normal.  Normal is over-rated.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=armP8TfS9Is&hl=en&fs=1&&w=425&h=344] [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oc7S8HAfDzk&hl=en&fs=1&&w=425&h=344] [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jd7YWx7idfE&hl=en&fs=1&&w=425&h=344] [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEW65OKRiAk&hl=en&fs=1&&w=425&h=344] [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FGdXEBcdh4&hl=en&fs=1&&w=425&h=344]