Editorial March 30, 1946 Issue

Loving Our Way to Normalcy

John Randall Dunn

At every turn these days one is conscious of humanity's urge to get back to what is called normalcy. Returning veterans naturally hope to pick up the threads of so-called normal living, broken by the war. Shopkeepers and all in the marts of trade look longingly for the return of a normal flow of supplies and wholesome business activity. Much is heard about "the good old days" before the late hostilities, and hope is expressed that their like shall soon be known again; and so it goes.

But let us consider the question of normalcy from the standpoint of divine metaphysics. Our English word "normal" stems from the Latin norma, meaning rule; so, really, what is normal must be that which is conformed to established law. Now the law recognized as supreme by Christian Science is the law of immutable good, God. In her "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 200) Mary Baker Eddy makes this important statement: "Jesus regarded good as the normal state of man, and evil as the abnormal; holiness, life, and health as the better representatives of God than sin, disease,and death." And in another place in the same book (p. 104) Mrs. Eddy says: "According to Christian Science, perfection is normal—not miraculous. Clothed, and in its right Mind, man's individuality is sinless, deathless, harmonious, eternal."

From this it will be seen that nothing short of the perfection of being, with its perfect, harmonious activity, should be regarded as the normal state of man and the universe. To aspire to any so-called normality is therefore anomalous, vain, and falls short of the mark of spiritually normal being.

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