Just Exactly What Is `Normal'?

Not too long ago, I was talking with an old friend about different things, when I casually asked her if she thought of herself as a normal person. She looked hard into my eyes to see ill was joking. "I'm about as normal as any person you'll ever meet," she said. "I eat, sleep, breathe, and do what I have to do to survive in this wonderful life that God has given me."

Not once did my friend mention her devastating disability. In her mind, she was completely normal, and in my judgement, she conducted her life that way.

Sometime later I went to visit my old friend Charley. We go a long ways back, and at one time we worked together. During our conversation, I …