by Kelly Cutrone.
"Basically, this book is for the freaks. In my opinion, we need to raise an army of supertalented uberfreaks if we are ever going to really change the world- since it's only the freaks who ever have. Look at Steve Jobs, Helen Keller, Rosa Parks, Ben Franklin, Van Gogh, Einstein... You get the picture. How many of these people followed anyone else's rules? Could any of them be possibly considered anything close to normal?
Pause and see what Websters Dictionary has to say about "normal":
nor-mal: 2 a: according with, constituting, or not deviating from a norm, rule or principle, b: conforming to a type, standard, or regular pattern; 4 a:
of, relating to, or characterized by average intelligence or development.
Duh. I rest my case. Who wants to be that?"
It's true. All this time we've been chasing our idea of 'normalcy': go to work, send the kids to school, follow fashion, act normal, walk on pavements, save up for old age. . .
NORMAL= SAFE + Boring + Predictability + No growth
Kelly urges us that a 'norm' is just someone in societies opinion, and their two cents.
"What do you have to say? What in this world are you called to fight for?"
From overdosing people on commercialized drugs, to media, to sex, to children and death, Kelly covers it all.
She makes you feel as though you
are worth everything you know deep down you are worth!
If you will only fight for something, the world will open up to you!
She uncovers the fact that advertisers sit around daily and spout phrases like, " Wouldn't it be wild if we...?" and "Can we try ...?" Many of the brands will try anything to get it to work.
This books makes me ask myself: if advertisers and everyone else in business for a profit doesn't want to be normal, views normal as disaster and tries on a regular basis to try new and different things to catch people's eye, then
why do we dumb ourselves down and strive to be normal?
She covers how the news uses fear, death and crime to shock us and scare us. To keep us coming back for more. She urges us to speak out against what we loathe: like the smut on the news. We are subject to hearing about the most gruesome, frivolous murders but we are never called upon to stare at the wonderful members of our communities!
She tells us to turn off the tv, don't celebrate the corporate 'holidays', and don't be trapped by dogma!
Create your own holidays.
She suggests we have Christmas on January 5th, when all the major retailers have put 75% off stickers on our favorite gadgets. We should do no shopping, no running around, and have no stress.
We should invent holidays that let us celebrate what we've done to get us to where we are in our lives. To celebrate ourselves.
She opposes fur, she promotes talking about sex with your kids (because who else will teach them!), learning about the real nation's history, the mistreatment of native american's, and the capital gains big industry makes off of your ignorance on these subjects. She talks about the commercialization of slaughtering birds every thanksgiving, and ends with the note:
Will you join me in putting these holidays out of business?
So far, she sounds like my consciousness in this book.
She has all the same morals and standing points that I do. She also doesn't take anyone's shit and tells everyone to 'Fuck off' if you can't handle the truth.
I like her because she has obviously been a seeker of truth: getting her information from books, museums, humans and NOT the news or commercials.
She talks about women and how we need to get up and use out talents.
She talks about the race of 'everyone' and the little known document: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights which Eleanor Roosevelt helped pen where all citizens of humanity have the same rights as all other ones.
Being compassionate is Kelly's big idea. From homelessness to men, to best friend's who are backstabbers, to all of humanity. We must remember to forgive people, to be there no matter what and pray for people.
We need to tend to our friendships and bodies on all levels- from physical, to social, to emotional, psychic and spiritual.
In death, she talks about how we should not fear death. The body is just letting the soul evacuate to go onto another level.
We need to be joyous and sorrowful in death, we need to remember the good with the bad.
We need to remember we will not live forever so do your good deeds now!
She states we need to be OK with death. And have a living will.
We need to also think about what we want to leave behind on this earth: it could be a child, a book, a piece of legislation, a legacy, or maybe just making your kids feel so loved and special.
**She also stated that when her dad died, her mother sat at night in the den of their house where they had lived for 50 years and raised 6 kids, she sat and talked to the husband every night. Everyone thought the mother was growing insane and viewed this as strange and wanted to squish this immediately.
Kelly said, you can move my mom when you can prove she is NOT actually talking to her husband. She said you never know, she could really be there with his spirit. They loved each other so deeply and the fact isn't if he is there, or not there. The fact is that everything that doesn't fit into societies 'acceptable' behavior is squished and swatted until it dies. She urges us to let ourselves be comfortable, raw, emotional and at times out of control.
This will press us to grow. To be more and to see the world in our own unique terms and not in any other persons way.
The ending of the book had to be the best.
After reading about her crazy life and envying her for being so young and having a tumultuous life filled with prestige, money, fame and talent, a little hue of resentment grows inside of you thinking
well I live in a small town, have small aspirations and this is great advice but it's hardly practical for me.
Reading the entire book, I got a headache. It was so true, so raw and stimulating that it took some time to digest. Her life is anything but normal. She's a PR executive for celebrities and the best names in the fashion industry. She has Indian guru friends, encounters with the Divine consciousness, a child, parents who were together until the end, and a tough-as-nails persona that I love.
In the last pages she states that she did try to be normal, to sit back, relax and sip margaritas while swinging off a tire swing into a pond on a sunday afternoon.
She daydreamed about having a man to come home to to protect her and love her.
She said trying to be normal isn't fun and it isn't stimulating.
You don't grow. She says to be special you have to work super hard, stay up late, starve yourself, maybe fly off the handle once or twice.
"
If Normal will get you Nowhere, Consciousness will get you fucking everywhere, from Bali to Paris to your very own block. I hope to see you there."
Overall, it helps me to know that people are not going to respect an educated and atypical girl who has done her homework. They are going to make me feel weird and tell me 'i'm too much' to get me to shut up and be normal. I have to push even harder, learn more and leave a circle of people who don't get me.
