We are tempted to live under the illusion that somewhere out there are people who are normal. In the movie "As Good As It Gets", Helen Hunt is wracked by ambivalence toward Jack Nicholson. He is kind and generous to her and her sick son, but he is also agoraphobic, obsessive-compulsive, and terminally offensive: If rudeness were measured in square miles, he'd be Texas. In desperation, Helen finally cries to her mother: "I just want a normal boyfriend."
"Oh," her mother responds in empathy, "everybody wants one of those. There's no such thing, dear."
When we enter relationships with the illusion that people are normal, we resist the truth that they are not. We enter an endless attempt to fix them, control them, or pretend that they are what they're not. One of the great marks of maturity is to accept the fact that everybody comes "as is."
-- John Ortberg in Everybody's Normal 'Till You Get to Know Them
#2399
Friday, October 16, 2009
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We are discussing this book in Sunday School this fall. I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a lesson theme.
ReplyDelete-Anne Culver
very good advice and reminder
ReplyDeletejanet