Dabbling in Normal

Oh---a whopping two post in one day. Of course I missed a few days so this is just making up for going so long.
I came upon this blog: simplekatie.blogspot.com --her November 22, 2006 post titled the same as this posting is. The posting really hit a nerve with me since that seems to be my perpetual struggle. Dabbling in normal. Katie speaks of being grateful that there are those that live outside the main stream without apology. My husband and I have always been "outside the normal" compared to our family and friends that we grew up with. I don't ever remember a time when I didn't want to have animals or garden. Though no one in my family did. Some of the things my husband and I do are no longer considered fruity any more but were at one time: organics, recycling, conserving fuel (we owned a geo metro that got 45 to 50 miles to the gallon when they first came out in the early 90s---and we weren't commuters) but some of the things still are. Does it bother me anymore? Sometimes. Especially when you are at the company xmas part with a group of woman that all live in the current accepted way. The idea of living primitive doesn't appeal to them at all so anything like: "I would love to build our next house with a composting toilet" just really doesn't go over well nor is it understood. How about "yeah---we butchered our hog and we spent all saturday cleaning intestines for sausage making" (something I would like to do but haven't yet). The funny thing is this: most of the things we do outside the norm are good for us, our economy, ours and others health, and the environment. At least we are trying to walk our talk. I wish more people would. Disregarding whether you believe in global warming or not---organics makes our water and soil healthier. Eating local saves gas and reduces pollution. Eating grass fed gives us healthier animals in turn being better for us. Organic milk (raw of course) is better for us contrary to what they like to try and force us to believe. Isn't this all reason to be a bit "un-normal" Since when did being normal have to be bad for you and everyone around you? The funny thing is: there are plenty of us who would choose to be un normal and grow all this food and help save energy and overall make it easier for those with less interest to be able to help also. But instead of accepting and supporting us, people and our government work to make it very difficult sometimes to be this way. They must be scared of us. Too bad for them. Maybe I should learn to frequent the mall more---at least I would have something to talk about at the next time I am out somewhere with the "normal" crowd.