Long live ‘not normal’

Today I got a sharp reminder of the difference between ‘us’ and ‘them’. Although Northern Ireland already has more than enough tribal troubles, the fact is that there is a huge tribe out there of people who don’t want to be part of the system as it stands; don’t want to be mindless consumers; don’t want to be mindless followers of rules that they didn’t agree to and don’t agree with.
What they do want is to be free to make informed choices, to be responsible for themselves, and to live their lives free from the controlling interests of corporations and an overbearing state.
A couple of weeks ago I looked out from the woods here, over at the housing, full of boxes, full of stuff, full of people, beavering away, and felt like I was from another world.
Today one of the people from the strange world that I looked at, told me that I was wrong, because I wasn’t using a normal amount of electricity, and that I hadn’t used a ‘normal’ amount of oil to heat my home. I didn’t  have air fresheners like a ‘normal’ person, and I wasn’t smartly dressed.
All day I’ve been pretty well outraged, but now I’ve calmed down, and I’m glad to have to have been labelled as ‘not normal’. Its a good place to be, and looking around, I’m damn proud to be here. Long live not normal – you can keep your normality, it’s really not for me.