Conscious Choice: Perfectly Normal

May 2008 | From the Publisher

Perfectly Normal

A colleague of mine, Douglas, recently gave me a bone to chew on regarding perfectionism in God theory.

Clearly, unlike the denizens of organized religion, I have no single solution to the God concept. If I did, I would just be one of the many authors hounding third-rate book publishers to read my manuscript.

Likewise, I do have my own theories. If the Bible has any truth at all, it is humans are created in God’s own image. Humans are flawed therefore God is flawed. In reality, of course, we know (or at least many know) creationism, as literally defined, is in itself a flawed concept.

But who says we have to take that notion literally? We can take it as the foundation of how to live our lives without harming others, without imposing our will on those we see as more flawed than we. If we reverse the concept and say humans created God in their own image, some would call us heretics. That is the truth, isn’t it? Humans have been creating God since ... well, let’s go back to recorded history.

The preposition that there is a “perfect God” is as ridiculous to me as perfection of any kind. The word in itself misleads one on the path of singularity (the perfect God = One; the perfect relationship = One). I do not even like to use the word “Bible” because the definition is singular: The Book.

I think these two words should be completely banned from our language: “perfect” and “normal.” Those two words give the individual ego absolute and dangerous autonomy. If I say something is normal or perfect, then my ego persuades me to impose those ideals on my fellow human. You must believe I have the perfect recipe. If you do not believe that, then we are going to have a fight.

However, if I take that very subjective concept of perfect and normal, and I keep it malleable and personal, I am open for learning and expansion. Perfection and normalcy can evolve every minute of the day.

If I say to my friends that my current romantic relationship is perfect, my friends will eagerly retort: “Right! You said that about the last eight of them.” That taunt is a positive lesson. Perfection, for me, is a moment still in time. When I am making love with the person with whom I am connected on many levels, that is the perfect moment. When I see an eagle fly above my head on a beautiful day, that is the perfect moment. Those are personal perfect moments, and they pass into history to make way for other perfect moments.

Therefore, why can’t spiritual beliefs be the same? God exists to me at this point in time as perfect. You are experiencing another moment in time which may be perfect for you. You and I coexist, and I can tell you about my perfect moment, my perfect God and you can tell me about yours — both without judgment or imposition, hopefully (Naughty ego, down boy! Sit!).

If this kind of behavior were normal, wouldn’t that be perfect?

— Richard McGinnis, Publisher

P.S. Please send me your ideas on perfectly normal thinking.

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