All Those Little Pieces

I know this guy, known him for close to 40 years, that everyone I know agrees is a bit strange. Nothing terrible, he’s a good guy and has a lot of friends, there’s just something a bit “off” about him. I find myself getting frustrated beyond belief every time I’m with him for any extended amount of time and that has made me wonder about a few things.

I wonder what it is that allows me to set the standard of what being a bit off is? I’m thinking that we all have to use ourselves as the measuring stick when it comes to these things. I mean, this friend for instance, he sits around and wonders about others just like the rest of us. While doing this, “normal” is him. His standard is himself, as it seems it should be. I can’t see how there can be any other measuring device. When any of us are talking to others about someone, and we all do, we’re comparing them to ourselves and that begs the bigger issue. How are you, me, or any other person, the standard?

I know when it comes to me, at times people must think I’m as weird as it gets. I sit and write about every issue that confronts me and put it out for the entire world to see. That’s certainly not the standard of the vast majority of people. Yet, in my mind, it’s the normal thing to do. I often wonder what I’d think if one of my friends did the same thing. Odds are I’d be talking to friends about this person and we’d all agree, this guy aint right.

I’m not saying that it’s anything so bad that we push someone completely out of our lives but don’t we all, whether we like it or not, feel that everyone is a bit “off” at times? Of course we do. I think that’s part of being human. We have that ability to look past the faults of others. The question is, who decides the faults? It’s you, it’s me, it’s the inner being of all of us.

We’re all a little broken in some way. I’ve stated on numerous occasions that I’ve got more issues than T.V. Guide but somehow they’re forgiven by the world at large and I’m able to go along my little immature life without being constantly hammered about it. I can’t imagine what life would be like if we were called onto the carpet for all our idiosyncrasies.