"Why can't you just be normal"

"Why can't you just be normal" is what my wife said to me in the car tonight. She was referring to the party I'm planning for my newly bachelor-ized friend. A good friend of mine has been going through the divorce process for the last 3 1/2 years and is finalizing his work here in the next week. I know this should be a time of reflection, maybe even solitude, but I want to do something that is going to celebrate this new chapter in his life. So I'm throwing him a party. Now a normal party would be some food and drinks, mixed together with funny stories. But I have a tendency to go over broad on everything I do. What could be simple, dare I say, "normal" has now escalated into something much more substantial. (I don't want to talk about it now because he might be reading, check back in on Saturday, I'll have pictures) This has been the pattern of my life. My curse is that I can't ever be normal. I've always got to make it bigger and better, more people, louder, faster, higher, etc. Examples you say

Normal would be settling for the Mexico house that is "ocean accessible" and not beach front because we could save lots of money. Normal would be having tattoos that are hidden. Normal would be planning my best friend's 30 birthday party 2 weeks in advance instead of 8 months. Normal would be taking my wife out to dinner and a movie on her birthday. Normal people don't have a "Summer of Fun". (The last summer of fun was in 2005, I've been planning this Summer of Fun for 3 years now, I call it...Anticipate '08) Normal means buying the Toro lawnmower instead of the 3 speed, twin blade, self-propelled, hydrostatic drive, 21" commercial grade Honda mower with Roto-Stop BBC. BTW, I love my lawnmower, it's possibly the most awesome thing I own. Normal means buying two mains and one sub for the church sound system. Somehow we ended up with 4 mains and 8 subs.

Unfortunately with being "normal" I probably would have settled for an office job, working banker hours, always wishing I could be the guy wearing a t shirt to work. Normal would have told me that planting a church is too much work and too much heart ache. Normal should have quit a long time ago. Normal never would have tried and failed to be a professional musician...and normal would have always regretted it. Normal would never try to learn a new instrument at 30. Normal probably would have divorced Jill because we are so different instead of embrace all the ways she makes me happy. Normal never would have tried to build a car because normal was afraid to fail. Normal waits for life to happen instead of charging it head on. This is what makes me embrace my abnormal-ness. I don't want to go through life half-ass ed. I'm quoting my friend John Lynch in saying, "I love being alive, I love watching the sun rise, I love playing with my dog, I love taking walks with my wife, I love everything being alive has to offer." I too love being alive...I want to celebrate it every day. This is why I can't be normal.