Typical

A couple of days ago I had a person tell me that he was a typical American. What he was really telling me was that he was right and if I didn’t think like him I was wrong! He was as much as saying that what his prospective of life was the norm or typical. But, from my point of view, he was far off in his thinking. Throughout my life others, including my family and my religious teachers, kept telling me that I was not typical. Little did they realize that I always looked upon those words as compliments! Most religions cater to those typical people. They are the ones who sit and nod in agreement and approval. They are the easy ones. They are the ones that don’t ask questions. They don’t make waves. Several times I was told not to return! Could it be that I ask too many questions or maybe, they did not know how to answer those questions. Or maybe they were only taught to teach “typical people.” I’m sure that if you ask each grand leader of each of the world’s great religions to define typical, each description would be quite different. Although each would probably agree that each of us had started the same way and would end the same way. Now, I’m going to tell you my answer to one of those “why” questions. When someone asks me the question;” why aren’t you typical like someone else”? And, if they haven’t already asked, I’m sure someday they will. I look them in the eye and then I tell them that if my God would have wanted me to be like that someone else He would have created me like them. We must realize that typical has different definitions for different people. The place we live, the way we speak, the way we have been taught, even our own standards and goals make a difference on how we view typical. Because, we usually use the word as a judgment tool, that typical is nothing more than judgment . All of my life, I’ve had people trying to teach me better ways to do things I didn’t want to do in the first place. Tell me why I would want to do them better? Just because that better for them seems typical for them, doesn’t make me want to change MY life just to make someone else think I’m typical. Since I started this essay I have become more conscious of how often we us this word in our everyday speech. I was shocked to find how many times we use it in describing our foods, our friends, and in life around us. It is fun for me to have a common used word brought to my attention and then notice the many times and ways we use it in our everyday world. Fun and excitement for me, often can be found in a single word, but you must realize that I’m not typical.