Not normal? Quite common it seems to me. For example, when I tell someone - on asking - that my mother recently died, people quickly start talking about their own sufferings and needs. No problem.

And if we only allow normal people to become artists, CEO's, exotic dancers, development workers, officers, butlers, publishers, football coaches and what have you we will run out of those soon too.

Bernard

How considerate of those people.
They seem to be everywhere to diminish ones pain:
pretty recently I visited an uncle who was struggling through his last days with bladder cancer. One of his sisters in law was present and while my uncle tried to reach the button to operate the morfinereleaser, she started complaining about her backpain, hurting knee and headaches. What a relief that someone was so brave to divert the attention to a different subject. The anger it evoked cleared away the heavy atmosphere. It must have been nice for my uncle to escape her complaining by just pushing the button again and drift of.

A more important question is "why did he walk over there and shared the news?". Did he want permission to leave? If so, why doesn't he talk about this, shame? Is it shameful to ask permission to leave?

Maybe he wanted to stop and chat about strokes. Some feel this need.

Therapy

Talking about fundraising. I've been in real therapy recently and my psychoanaliser said I should get myself tested for numberous of things. He gave me the address of a well-known clinic for testing. They had a long waitinglist, so I contacted some others on my own.

I found a woman who happens to be specialised in these sort of tests, that's what she said. She explained some stuff and added on the bottom of the mail (I mailed her first): "Maybe you could tell your psychoanaliser about my business."

I don't know if I'm supposed to trust this woman now. She doesn't seem normal, but I don't know if that's a bad thing. Same difference?

"Normal person"

Here's a sentence from the article which struck me as a form of American wiffyness...

“It’s hard to imagine what could have been going through his head for this to reach such a brazen point,” Mr. Fritchey said. “The irony is, had he simply delivered on the promises on which he campaigned rather than pursuing his belief that success would come through an abundance of fund-raising, his path might look like he wanted it to.”

Notice the last words , "might look like he wanted it to," i guess ever since Obama it's common in America that politicians by any means "deliver their promises." Most don't, in fact, if you look at simple static.
Which makes me wonder what a "normal person" is, according to mister Fritchey (a name that Joyce easily would have used in one of the Dubliners stories, i suppose). Apart from the fundraising incident (which reminds me of Gordon Gekko's greed = good), a politician not delivering his promises seems to me the height of normalness.

Kevin

I'm not sure if I understand the word "wiffyness".

This is what I call a nice example of instrumental use of others.

@Jeanette
Your story sounds very familiar. (Not to mention the gathering of crows around a dying aunt of mine, some years ago. Those big rolling eyes full of lust in search for some small profit. Better than a horror comedy!)

Mr. Blagojevich looks very normal to me on this picture.

Arnon

The proper word should have been "whiffy," forgot the 'H' .

What it means in my point is "something's smelly about that" ( as in: there's something wrong with the point made in that sentence) .

Normal

A few years ago, one of my aunt was dying because of cancer. It was her wish to die at home, in a peaceful and quiet environment.In her last hours while she was lying downstairs in a hospitalbed, waiting to die, we found her husband , my uncle, upstairs, in a frantic state of mind looking for her jewelbox, checking if nothing was missing. The day before he had forced her to read his diary in wich he confessed he had never loved her and had numerous affairs with other women. Agony.

Mieke

With all respect to your aunt, wouldn't you wish she left a letter for him confessing their children weren't his or a last will in which she gave her legacy to some vague association?

To Dens

Would you like to share with us why you are seeing a psychoanalist?

Dens

And do you share with your psychoanalist why you are seeing us?

Mieke

A already told you: You have storys to tell!

@Mieke
That is a very sad story, a living nightmare. But what a story indeed…

Jeanette

Unfortunately my aunt had seven children with him. She was infatuated with my uncle since the age of sixteen. It was the only man she ever loved.
I visited their home as little as possible, because of the negative atmosphere. They all liked to mock and humiliate each other in the most resentful way.
Last month , my uncle was seriously ill, he had surgery. All I could wish for was for him not to recover. Needless to say that his children , currently, still live in a mayor "discordia".

Mieke

That story enages me. Why keep a secret all those years only to blurt it out at the end? It is the height of vindictiveness and the opposite of the barest human decency. Why keep such a diary? My father always says such a thing is only written to be read. It gives the whole thing an air of premeditation, that the deathbed surprise was the point and the plan all along. I hate this man.

@D Hylobates
“Why keep a secret…?” My guess: to provoke doubt, to give (false) hope for love or consideration.
As my father – a former special service interrogator - used to say: always provide prisoners some hope for escape, so that the final kill will be more painful, more desperate and deadlier.
To finally cut away hope is the most cruellest of all, indeed. Mockery and secrecy are essential parts of the game.

To Sander

I envy the wit that your question suggests.

Dens

If you share with us why you are seeing a shrink, I willtell you why I am. Don't be shy, that's one of your charms.

Shrink

My counselor at the university adviced me to do so. I have a lot of unresolved issues. A lot. I quit seeing this shrink, because it started feeling like I was going to see a friend. I felt that was pretty bad.

Mieke

Please elaborate on your shrink.

Bernard

That's what bothers me so much. If one thinks life and love and family are a game one shouldn't play.

Dens

I am being treated for a psychotic disordre, but you could say that my shrink, together with my artteacher , is the 'man' in my life. I love talking to him.

Mieke

Aren't we all in love with those who listen to us and treat us kindly?

Dens

You hit the nail on the head.

Mieke

I'm just listening.