briancromer.com

You may be asking yourself, “What is a Brian-ism?”  A Brian-ism is simply a thought on life that my brain has found to contain truth.  You may not agree with every Brian-ism.  If that is the case then you should develop your own (insert your name here)-ism.  Enjoy.

BRIAN-ISM #3:  THERE IS NO NORMAL.

We have all heard the cheesy analogy that every person is like a beautiful snowflake because every beautiful snowflake is unique and does not look like any other snowflake.

No matter how cheesy that sounds, there is truth in that analogy.

One of my favorite movies is Angus.  Angus is one of those amazing, 90s high school movies.  However, something that makes it different from other high school movies is that it looks at the adolescent world through the eyes of Angus and Troy, two nerdy, under-the-radar freshman.  Angus describes himself as a loser who is good at science and fair at football who has to endure the cruelty of his peers by taking fat jokes daily and watching his underwear rise on the flagpole.

Of course for this movie to work, there has to be a character that is the exact opposite of Angus.  For every Angus Bethune there has to be a Rick Sandford.  Rick is the good-looking, popular, starting quarterback who has all the cool friends and the beautiful cheerleader girlfriend by his side.  He believes one of his life missions is to ridicule, make fun of, belittle, and humiliate Angus at every opportunity.

The climax of the movie happens when Angus and Rick get into a very public verbal war of words at the big school dance.  Here’s the exact quote from that exchange:

Angus: You push me down and I’ll get back up again, and Again, and AGAIN, And AGAIN, AND AGAIN! 
Angus: I could beat you RIGHT here, RIGHT now! But I DON’T WANT to be better than you, Rick! I DON’T WANT to be better than ANYBODY! I just want to be who I AM: a FAT kid, who’s good at science, and fair at football. That’s who I AM! I can LIVE with that. Why can’t you? 
Rick: Because it’s not normal. YOU’RE not normal. 
Angus: And who is? You? 
Rick: You bet your a**. 
Angus: So to be normal, we all have to be like YOU? There are 400 people in this room who are NOTHING like you, Rick! Some of them are fat, some of them are skinny. Some of them are short, some of them are tall. Some of them have braces, some of them have birth marks, or scars, or frizzy hair, or EARS THAT STICK OUT! 
[Troy's head pops up out of crowd] 
Angus: But most of them walk through these halls EVERY DAY, never telling anybody what they really think, or feel, or believe, because people like you, NORMAL people like YOU, have them TERRIFIED of being who they REALLY are. If YOU’RE normal, what does that make all of them? So which is it, Rick? Are you normal? Or are you just one of us? 
Rick: Whatever I am, it’s something you’re never gonna be. 
Angus: Thank God.

I also like how David described it in Psalm 139 (NIV), “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; you works are wonderful, I know that full well.”

God designed us to be unique.  He has internally wired us in a very specific way where we are original with unique thoughts, features, likes, dislikes, quirks, pet peeves, and much more.  That is the Word of God talking, not me.  

Let’s look at a quick example.  Let’s say that I am normal (even though we all know that statement to not be true).  If I am the standard of normalcy, then nobody else on this planet would qualify as normal.  Nobody is just like me.  Nobody thinks exactly like I do.  Nobody enjoys and dislikes things exactly like I do.  If I truly believed I was normal, it would be a lonely island that nobody could join me on.

Go put the 1995 classic Angus on your Netflicks or Blockbuster Online lists.  It is a good movie with a better point.  

There you go.  Brian-ism #3: THERE IS NO NORMAL.  Like Angus so perfectly put it, “Thank God.”