Bumps and Holes

I have met some pretty strange people in my life; we all have, probably.  It is okay to think some people are weird.  We have established certain norms within our society that provide us with guidelines regarding what is socially acceptable.  We have laws.  These are the most formalized norms that define our society.  These daysm we find ourselves in a terrible battle betwen societies today regarding norms that define two different societies.  Fundamnetalist, Radical Muslims believe that if you are not a Fundamentalist, Radical Muslim that thinks exactly how they think, they can kill you, for you are an infidel.  We, the American society, generally believe in religious tolerance.  We believe in live and let live, and that all people have the absolute right to believe what they want.   The active word here is believe.  There are Baptists that believe I am goung to go to Hell because I am not a Baptist.  They want me to convert, but they accept that I have the right to believe what I want and make the choice, in their opinion, to go to Hell.

This is one of the most well-defined, formalized examples of the differences between people.  The ones that each of us have to deal with on a day-to-day basis are more subtle.  We have societal norms that we use to judge.  The homeless man or woman with all of his or her belongings in a shopping cart are generally looked down upon and judged harshly by most, but not all.  There are people in our society that have different beliefs about what is acceptable behavior sexually.  We have a loose underground group of people in our society that beleive in sex as a recreational activity.  In years gone by they were referred to as "swingers."  Most people do not understand this lifestyle, and they judge harshly, much like the homeless.  Of course there are differences between the comparisons, homelessness is often not a choice.  Swinging, group sex and complete sexual freedom is viewed as a choice.  It may not be for some people, but that is how it is viewed.

Have you ever thought about them; the odd among us, setting their oddities aside?  Most of these people are different.  They act different and behave different and that is what makes them odd.  Have you ever considered how one odd person finds another odd person and a relationship begins?  And once they find each other what is that makes them stay together?  I contend that people that operate outside the norms of our society are able to fit together.  One of them has holes in her head, another has bumps in his.  The key is when they put their heads together, the bumps in his head fit the holes in hers.  Ya, they are both weird, strange and otherwise out there, but they fit together.  They compliment each other and, to use the hackneyed words of Jerry MaGuire, they "complete" each other.  When  they are together they are whole.  When they complete each other, they make a whole that is greater than the sum of their respective parts.

There is very little difference between those we think of as strange and those of us we think of as normal, in many respects.   We are always just looking for the person who has the holes in her head that fit the bumps in ours.  That is how we can define true happiness and, in my opinion, how we can also define the realtionships between the people we know that are truly in love.  I have discovered that I have a pretty bumpy head and I am on the lookout for the woman that has a pretty holey head, but the holes have to be in just the right places.