“We learn to evaluate ourselves, our goals, our desires and behavior according to ‘norms’ or ‘most people’ — but both of these are absolute verbal fictions. Statistics, upon which we base much of our thinking, expectations and predictions… have absolutely nothing to do with individuals, which are, in ‘fact’ utterly mysterious.

Each organism, each human being… is a universe of time and relation that is at once completely unique, and capable of being considered as ‘an instance of a class’ — but only in language or mathematics — both of which are mere representations.

There are no actual norms. They cannot be found in nature, have no voices, do not speak, evaluate or act.

What I am emphasizing here is that ‘reality’ is nearly entirely mysterious — it is not something that exists or can be grasped or described. It is made of experiences and relationships, and these are always unique, indescribable, personal, communal… and invisible to norms, statistics, models and declarations of ‘reality’ or ‘facts’.

By what, then, should we evaluate ourselves? With a few notable exceptions… by grace, and beauty, by relation with the sky and living beings and places… we should be known by wonder and inspiration, and not by dead statistics or models of ‘normal’ behavior or perspective… to which we are trained to compare ourselves to cruel and disabling effect.”

— an anonymous informant