Remarkable

We are the hero of our own lives or, at least, the leading actor. It’s our movie and come to think of it, we might also be part anti-hero, fool or victim along the way.

I have never thought of myself as remarkable. To prove it, I googled my name and saw that I barely exist. Other remarkable men with my name take up the first six pages.

I imagine each Norm Levine regards himself as the name brand and all the others as generic equivalents. That would be defined as mentally healthy. 

Remarkable is a remarkable word. Whether I am remarkable is something I leave for others to remark upon. The word itself is really neutral. 

What I know for sure is that life itself is spectacular, miraculous and astonishing. This time granted us is to be revered. The older I get, the word grateful takes on more meaning. And to live with gratitude is to caretake this ecosystem and each other. 

Even while witnessing the wreckage of our once civil society I still celebrate my good fortune not only for this accident of geography that deposited me here and not there, but also for having lived my life being fully met in loving relationships. Love, that is, in its many permutations.

I've now reached the age when that adjective, remarkable, has flipped. After seven test tubes of blood, my lab results have come back and my doctor makes the sweetest pronouncement: unremarkable, a state devoutly to be wished for.

I am in awe of creative people who have widened our perceptions and shared their achievement. At the same time some of us tend to an interior landscape with nurturing and small wisdoms that further contribute to our evolution and do so unnoticed. Both are the measure of our humanity. We are all remarkable.