Normal: Conforming to a standard; usual, typical, or expected.
We’ve been here for more than a year now. Wow! We’re at that stage where life in the US is kind of normal, but still kind of not. We look at each other in certain situations and say “is that normal?”
And honestly, we don’t know.
There are some things here that are perfectly normal for the USA or for Texas in particular and just really not for us Brits.
Some of the normality is rather pleasant. It’s now normal for me to take a walk in January without a jacket. The sun is shining and the sky is extra blue as the angle of the sun is more conducive to a wonderful hue.
It’s normal to hear the ugly utterances of the squawking blue jays while I’m out for my walk , and the shrill cooing of the mocking birds. It’s normal to see herons and egrets grace the bayou of course the whistling black bellied ducks in Hermann Park.
But not so normal to see a lone pelican paddling down the waterway, clearly lost and separated from his pals. Pelicans normally swoop gracefully in small groups at the coast so to see one singleton inland, trying to make his way to the sea is concerning. Here’s hoping he finds his friends and learns his lesson.
Normal too to see many, many squirrels scurrying along the fence at the back door and sunbathing sleepily with one eye half open. They are very cute.
But not so normal to see a scrawled note pinned to the grass verge on the roadside near our house with chop sticks (yes that’s correct) with the words “What would an educated person do?” written on it. Odd. I saw this note the other day when out walking in the neighbourhood and though “whatever”, and kept walking.
Of course it is completely normal here to see people texting in the car, while driving, eyes down in concentration, not looking at the road. Completely normal. And not challenged. At least not until they cause a multiple car pile up on the freeway
And also normal to hold complete conversations on calls which will no doubt last the length of the car journey – the driver not the passenger. And normal to see the practice of holding one’s phone in one’s left hand up to one’s right ear – yes that’s right – try that with one hand on the steering wheel. Quite quite normal here.
Manners are normal here too. It’s really rather nice to have people apologise profusely for simply being in your way. Certainly at home, outside RGU at lunchtime, there were no such manners shown by the pupils from a certain high priced private school when they approached you in their hordes. You have to jump quickly to get out of their way or avoid going out when school lunchtime is on.
But the manners exhibited in person are just completely absent in some other situations. Like driving. Road rage is more prevalent here and no sign of chivalry from other cars desperate to get from A to B without letting a single car out from a side street in front of them. Even when this would relieve another bottleneck. Grrrrr.
Is it normal to wait 2 and a half hours to see Madonna in concert? Apparently so. That’s universally accepted and so does not vary across the globe. I’ll not wait that long again for anyone. Ever.
And of course it is completely normal here to find a reality TV ‘star’ running for president. His prior qualifications? Why he runs a business of course! He makes a lot of money. Wow – just the qualities you need to run a country as vast and complex as the USA. Run the country like a business and of course you’re bound to ‘make it great again’.
Erm – no. Surely there’s slightly more to running a country than running a business? For starters – businesses are run for profit. Pure and simple. You make something, deliver a service, transport it to your customers, who in turn buy your stuff. You sell your stuff to them for a higher price than it costs you to make it and generate profit. Or am I being too simplistic?
Now I am no business expert or economics expert (clearly), but just precisely where do we see the analogy with running a country?
Taxation, social security, health, education, crime, justice, agriculture, environment, food, energy, currency and of course an understanding of foreign affairs might be helpful areas of knowledge and preferably experience.
But the really normal thing here is that a lot of people seem to think that the reality star is the right candidate – wtf!
I have fairly recent memories of ‘The Donald’ – he received an honorary degree from RGU in 2010. He opened his Trump golf course outside Aberdeen amidst lots of controversy. The various happenings at that time demonstrate a) he is a bully and b) he is only interested in his own ego.
So he continues to dominate the tv news and has now received endorsement from that other reality person Sarah Palin. A completely bonkers woman with such a dreadful world view that one would think that really the poor thing has an advanced and untreated form of ‘affluenza’ and should be pitied. Or at least quietly removed from society and placed somewhere very secure for some intensive therapy. And is she actually getting worse?
And so back to the scrawled note that I saw on the grass verge.
I went out the next day and there were a number of these notes, all pinned to the grass with chop sticks, along our street. Then I realised why there were there. They were each pinned next to some dog poop that had not been removed. Quite disgusting and yes, indeed – “What would an educated person do?”
And I am tempted to pin a note myself, beside any image or reference to The Donald and his now bonkers sidekick.
“What would an educated person do?”
Whole Other Country 