I haven’t visited Twitter in over a month, and yet some of the latest Twitter drama still managed to reach me in this tiny hippie village at the southmost corner of Europe.
I like ‘normie’ but I don’t buy it with the ‘ordinary normie’. I think you can be wise normie, normie who secretly has heron marked sword(like Rand Al Thor’s stepfather), normie who can sing magic songs that harmonise the household proper, alchemist normie, noble normie
Doesn't normie and ordinary mean pretty much the same thing? I totally agree that going on a great journey will make everyone come back transformed, but if they use that transformation as a way to distinguish themselves from everyone else rather than to relate to them better, for me it kinda misses the whole point.
It doesn’t mean the same thing in my language book. You can relate to people and be humble and still have non-ordinary skills and a pinch of magic. I don’t see a contradiction here. Another way to say it is that you don’t have to castrate yourself or limit your development in order to ‘stay relatable’ to people. But there’s also nothing wrong to come back from an adventure and choose to just be ordinary, not as an integration of the journey, but as a stance of “this is the life I choose for myself”
Thanks, I see what you mean now. Limiting yourself to stay relatable is definitely a problem that happens to many, that's why going on the initial journey is crucial. Whoever returns is too confident of themselves and their own power to mold themselves into something they're not under social pressure.
Yes, but there's also something deeper here. Developing skills in any kind, be it programming or spirituality or knitting or something else, has an inherent elitism connected with it. If you have the skill and competency you're different than the people who don't have them - you have grater capabilities. That's very hard to reconcile, because it's in the basis of authority, competence, power. The best way I've found to reconcile it is to try to cultivate humbleness and groundedness vs. arrogance and to point the skills towards serving people vs. purely personal benefit.
I don't feel inferior to my hairdresser, even though I can only dream of doing things she's capable of. Everyone has different skills, at a different level of capability, and it's only a problem if we assume that certain skills are more important than others. Otherwise people can just contribute different things to the common good.
"Normie" has always carried the overtones of "square;" someone who lacks the courage and creativity to express themselves, so they conform and think it's a virtue.
The funny thing is that I thought I became uninteresting on Twitter after I got married and didn't have "interesting insights" to share anymore that hadn't already been said by tons of people. But your post made me rethink that... in many ways marriage is a radical decision, and full of adventure and I could still share what I wish my younger self would have liked to know
I needed to hear this. Thanks
Great piece! My favorite "normie" is Odysseus. He travelled the known world and fought fierce battles, survived feuds with a noble back and cool head,
and at the end he returned to Ithaca where his noble and faithful wife awaited.
It really is the most beautiful tale.
Love this example!
There is something to say about the fact that the grandmothers hero’s journey IS to become a grandmother. And you’re right in the middle of it. (:
I like ‘normie’ but I don’t buy it with the ‘ordinary normie’. I think you can be wise normie, normie who secretly has heron marked sword(like Rand Al Thor’s stepfather), normie who can sing magic songs that harmonise the household proper, alchemist normie, noble normie
Here’s another very good argument on the very similar theme - nobility https://vividness.live/nobility
Doesn't normie and ordinary mean pretty much the same thing? I totally agree that going on a great journey will make everyone come back transformed, but if they use that transformation as a way to distinguish themselves from everyone else rather than to relate to them better, for me it kinda misses the whole point.
It doesn’t mean the same thing in my language book. You can relate to people and be humble and still have non-ordinary skills and a pinch of magic. I don’t see a contradiction here. Another way to say it is that you don’t have to castrate yourself or limit your development in order to ‘stay relatable’ to people. But there’s also nothing wrong to come back from an adventure and choose to just be ordinary, not as an integration of the journey, but as a stance of “this is the life I choose for myself”
Thanks, I see what you mean now. Limiting yourself to stay relatable is definitely a problem that happens to many, that's why going on the initial journey is crucial. Whoever returns is too confident of themselves and their own power to mold themselves into something they're not under social pressure.
Yes, but there's also something deeper here. Developing skills in any kind, be it programming or spirituality or knitting or something else, has an inherent elitism connected with it. If you have the skill and competency you're different than the people who don't have them - you have grater capabilities. That's very hard to reconcile, because it's in the basis of authority, competence, power. The best way I've found to reconcile it is to try to cultivate humbleness and groundedness vs. arrogance and to point the skills towards serving people vs. purely personal benefit.
I don't feel inferior to my hairdresser, even though I can only dream of doing things she's capable of. Everyone has different skills, at a different level of capability, and it's only a problem if we assume that certain skills are more important than others. Otherwise people can just contribute different things to the common good.
"Normie" has always carried the overtones of "square;" someone who lacks the courage and creativity to express themselves, so they conform and think it's a virtue.
Amazing Maria. 👏🏼
I underwrite this 100%, it’s been exactly my reasoning for starting my substack almost a year ago.
Something Tolkien realized that follow-up acts have forgotten.
The funny thing is that I thought I became uninteresting on Twitter after I got married and didn't have "interesting insights" to share anymore that hadn't already been said by tons of people. But your post made me rethink that... in many ways marriage is a radical decision, and full of adventure and I could still share what I wish my younger self would have liked to know