"NORMAL," what good is it?

BOX SCORE
Element	Current	Std. Range	Trend
Hemoglobin	8.5	13-17	^
Platelets	113	140-375	^
ANC	1930	1800-8300	^

In the 1974 Mel Brooks spoof of Mary Shelley's classic novel, "Frankenstein," titled "Young Frankenstein," and starring Gene Wilder, Marty Feldman,  Madeline Kahn, Terry Garr, Cloris Leachman and Peter Boyle as the monster, there is a leitmotif that runs through the story. Wilder plays a professor in a medical school and the grandson of Victor Frankenstein, Shelley's protagonist. Wilder describes his grandfather's work (reanimating dead flesh) as "doo-doo" and, in an effort to distance himself from the disgraced scientist from generations past, insists that his surname is pronounced "Fronkensteen." 

Why does the younger Frankenstein go to such lengths? That, I believe, is where the leitmotif kicks in, and that leitmotif is "normalcy." Just as many "scientists" nowadays are fearful that if they "rock the 'settled science' boat," they may be professionally disgraced and find themselves unemployed or unable to secure the necessary funding to pursue research in their chosen field, Fronkensteen wants to fit in; to be "normal." 

Likewise, Kahn, who plays the younger Frankenstein's fiancee, makes a great show of being perfectly prim and proper, always perfectly coiffed and made up and never indulging in "public displays of affection." She wants to be "normal," that is accepted by those she sees as "the right people." Nevertheless, as the story unfolds, we learn that underneath it all, she is concealing a raging inferno of passionate desire. 

The plot of the story is that Wilder learns that he has inherited his grandfather's estate, comprising a castle in Transylvania. He travels to Europe to take possession of said inheritance. After he does so, he stumbles on his grandfather's notebooks (as well as his labortatory) about his experiments of long ago. The experiments which led to disaster when the humanoid creature he pieced together and animated turned out to have a defective brain, causing it to run amok, and terrorize the community. The more he reads, the more the younger Frankenstein begins to see that it just may be possible to do exactly what his grandfather had attempted. Free from the oppression of the "normal" scientific community at the university back home, and encouraged by his assistant Igor (pronounced "Eye gore" and played by Feldman) and the servant girl Inga (played by Garr, and perhaps the only "normal" person in the play, i.e., authentic and unassuming), young Frederick is convinced he can achieve what his grandfather did not. Of course, this will require the pure discipline of a "normal" scientist, rather than his grandfather's haphazard methods. 

Igor and Frederick snatch a body from the nearby cemetery, and while Frederick begins prepping it, he sends Igor to steal the brain of a brilliant scientist from the local "brain bank." Unfortunately, after finding the brain perfectly preserved in a glass jar, Igor is startled by a noise outside the door and drops the jar. Not wanting to disappoint the young doctor, he grabs the next jar and hurries home. Eventually, the specimen is all prepared for animation, and after several attempts at animation, Frederick begins to shout, "It's alive, it's alive." He sets his creation free, only to learn that it has murderous tendencies, when provoked. 

Putting two and two together, Frederick asks Igor if the brain he procured was that of the brilliant scientist. Igor admits that the brain he brought back was that of someone named, "Abby, I think. Abby Normal." There's the leitmotif again, only this time the abnormal has replaced the normal, with dire consequences. 

What is normal? Dictionary. com defines it this way*: 

            adjective

1. conforming to the standard or the common type; usual; not abnormal; regular; natural.

2. serving to establish a standard.

3. Psychology.

   • approximately average in any psychological trait, as intelligence, personality, or emotional adjustment.

   • free from any mental disorder; sane.

4. Biology, Medicine/Medical.

   • free from any infection or other form of disease or malformation, or from experimental therapy or manipulation.

   • of natural occurrence....

     noun
     

7. the standard or the common type.

8. the usual state, amount, level, etc., especially the average or mean: Production may fall below normal.
   

It is clear by these definitions, that Frederick's creation was not normal. It was not "approximately average in...emotional adjustment." It was not "free from...experimental therapy or manipulation." It was not "of natural occurrence." It was clearly not "the standard or the common type."

Today was blood draw for day for me. If you will note in the Box Score, my ANC is in the "Standard Range." In other words, I'm normal. On the other hand, my hemoglobin and platelets are both below the "Standard Range." In other words, I'm abnormal! What's a fellow to do? 

I think there are two ways to look at a person. One way is to compare him to the "normal," as in #7 above, does he fit "the standard or the common type?" Well, in my case, yes... and no. In fact there are two noes to one yes. Therefore, in our world of black and white thinking, I must be abnormal. Perhaps, I should be shunned, or jailed, or sent to an asylum. (Please don't agree so quickly!!) The other way to look at that person (in this case, me) is through a lens of grace. Yes, by a couple of standards I am abnormal, but if you look elsewhere you will find things about me that are "normal." Is it reasonable to expect every person to be "normal" in every respect? Wouldn't that mean that everyone (left alive after the purge of the "abnormal") would essentially be a clone of everyone else? 

I am grateful to my Creator that he made me (and you) normal in many respects, with just enough "abnormal" in each of us to make us unique and interesting individuals. Try looking at the people around you through God's lens of grace. Maybe that guy at the office who seems so strange is really a pretty interesting guy, once you take the time to learn more about him. Maybe your neighbor who seems so withdrawn and maybe just a bit scary is really just shy and is wishing someone would take the first step in striking up a conversation.  After all, each of us is made in God's image. How much more normal could anyone be? 

...a lawyer, asked [Jesus] a question to test him.“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” ³⁷ And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. ³⁸ This is the great and first commandment. ³⁹ And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. (Matthew 22:36-39)

 *https://www.dictionary.com/browse/normal