To Ease the Passing of Time

The other day Maria was watching on YouTube a Vietnamese monk talking in Vietnamese about life, how to be content and happy, and all that.

I asked her, “What is he saying?”

“He’s talking about the joys of just being normal.”

“What do you mean normal?”

“Just being a normal guy or girl with no special talents, not being a genius without being an idiot, not being a beauty without being ugly, and all that.”

“Like an average Joe?”

“I guess.”

“So what’s so special about being an average Joe?”

“The monk said that you can be happy with only that, and that you don't need to be anything else to enjoy life. He said that the simple fact that you are normal is already a blessing. It is something that you should appreciate and be thankful for.”

Maria doesn’t tell me much when I ask to translate something that I heard in Vietnamese. The monk had been talking non-stop for over an hour, and that’s all I was able to get from her about what he had been saying. Sometimes Maria talks in Vietnamese with her sister in Vietnam for two hours on Messenger, and when I ask her what her sister had said, she says, “She just said everything is fine.”

I went back to what the monk had said in my head, and I told myself, “That monk is right. It took millions of years of evolution to produce human beings able to stand up to walk, to use their fingers to prepare food and make objects, to think, to have memories, to be able to smell the roses, enjoy the taste of an apple or a good cigar, and to be able to communicate with other human beings by speaking or writing.

Of course, it would be great if I was to be able to sing, and play the guitar or the piano. It would also be great if I was a super athlete, and if I looked like a frigging model. But would that make me more content and happy? I'm not sure. Maybe I would want more. One day, I told Maria, “I wish I were taller.” She said, “You wouldn’t be happier if you were taller.” She was probably right.

And then I thought that being normal also means not to have all kinds of irregularities and dysfunctions that make your life a complete mess for yourself and the people around you. I used to drink too much but I’ve been sober for nearly thirty years, and I don’t have the urge to kill people like some criminals on Dateline and 48 Hours. I should be very happy about that, and I am.

It doesn’t take a genius to write what I’ve just written, but I couldn’t have done it if I was a complete idiot either. If that’s what it means to be normal, I’m normal, and I'm very happy about it.

An average Joe