I thought it might be cool to frame a night with pics that showed the sun going down and then again with the sun coming up.
It’s not the norm, I know, but in truth I was on my way out to McDonald’s yesterday evening when the thought occurred to me.
So the four pics at the end of this blog are two from last night (Lakeland on an interstate overpass) and two from this morning (Auburndale at Lake Ariana). Hope you like them.
It struck me as I was on my way home this morning that I had shot these out of order. I mean, we are always told Sunrise to Sunset describes the correct passage of time.
But if we were all vampires, would we have been told Sunset to Sunrise as we lived our lives among the night shadows?
So, I guess where the thought led me was the very definitions of norms that we are given growing up, are really meaningless because in truth there really are no norms.
The powers that be can structure 24 hour clocks and establish hourly divides, but are these any more than an attempt to normalize something which isn’t normal?
Do these same norms have any relevance for example to a creature that only lives a few weeks?
Much of this normalization is an attempt by rulers and governments to more easily control their subjects and citizens. They establish normal working hours for them and tell us that weekends are for us.
They tell us to celebrate independence once a year, give gifts to family and friends once a year, and put our children into schooling from 5 to 18.
In many ways I agree with the whole normalization and standardization because it reduces the chaos of how we relate to each other.
But the main thought I wanted to convey here is that while this normalization is fine in terms of how we relate to others, it is altogether wrong to try to standardize ourselves.
We are not robots. We do not all think the same, or feel the same.
While we allow some latitude for variation, there are many people that get judged by society just for being themselves.
For example we often judge based on religion, or even lack of religion. Yet not everyone needs a god and not everyone’s god is the same. For thousands of years we have waged wars on each other trying to convince each other that our god is the one true god.
We also judge based on sexuality or sexual preferences. Some get judged because they love someone of the same sex. Others because they don’t want to be a specific sex at all.
We judge women that choose not to have a baby shoot out of their vagina just because they got pregnant. And we judge those that have too many babies sliding out from so many different fathers.
When they (the powers that be) tried to establish the rules by which they wanted us to live, they wrote moral and legal positions that they then sought to enforce.
And their enthusiastic little robots killed blasphemers and infidels, refused service to gay lovers, and bombed abortion clinics.
And that is exactly the problem with standardized behavior. While normal folk can understand that these “laws” are really guidelines that play out in a grey zone of real life, radicals seek to follow the letter regardless of where it may take them.
I was happy to bookend the night time with two shots either side of it. This was my way of thumbing my nose at those who seek to normalize the world we live in.
Avoid conformance as much as you can. In so doing, you set your spirit free.
Just wear pants when you go to Walmart … that’s where freedom of spirit is likely to end up getting your picture on peopleofwalmart.com and trust me, that’s not where you want to be!
