Normalise, don’t share

I have this saying that I say a lot. I say “normalise sharing scrappy fiddles”. ¹²³⁴⁵

And other people join in too. ^{67891011121314151617181920212223242526}

And some people join the conversation, offering their views / critiques of the phrase. Well actually it’s only been one person who’s done that so far but— ²⁷

Look. It’s my fault. I take full responsibility for this. I haven’t communicated it well enough.

But yeah, everyone gets it wrong because they miss off the most important word.

The phrase is not “share scrappy fiddles”.

The phrase is “normalise sharing scrappy fiddles”.

There’s a big difference.

“Normalise” is when you “make something more normal”. It’s when you make something become more socially accepted.

“Normalising” something is a very different act to doing the thing that you’re normalising. But I think most people interpret my saying as—

People think I’m asking them to share more, but I’m not. I’ve always said that you don’t have to share things. Here’s a quote from my algorave post:

It is up to you whether you share yourself or not. But whatever you choose to do, whether you share scrappy fiddles or not, you must normalise sharing scrappy fiddles, at the very least for those who want to or have no choice, like me.

You are a scrappy fiddle. You may or may not share scrappy fiddles. But you must normalise sharing scrappy fiddles.

You must normalise. You don’t have to share.

You can normalise sharing scrappy fiddles without sharing scrappy fiddles. You can share scrappy fiddles and fail to normalise sharing scrappy fiddles. The two are independent.

Your strategy for normalising sharing scrappy fiddles might involve leading by example / becoming a role model, but it doesn’t have to. You could do it in so many other ways. I won’t patronise you by listing some examples. You’re creative enough to figure it out yourself!

Okay fine I’ll list some examples.

• If you share a lot of scrappy fiddles but you don’t support others in sharing scrappy fiddles then you are failing to normalise sharing scrappy fiddles.
• If you share scrappy fiddles and make out that it’s really special and tricky and unusual and stuff, then you are not normalising sharing scrappy fiddles. You are making it worse!
• If you don’t share scrappy fiddles but you emotionally support those who do, then you are normalising sharing scrappy fiddles.
• actually, lists are boring. let’s move on

I think the world is better with empathy.

I think the world would be better if we understood each other better.

If we empathised with each other more, there would be more cohesion, more cooperation, more peace.

It doesn’t take a genius to understand that.

I didn’t choose to be the way I am.

I can only be a scrappy fiddle.

Transition takes for fuckin ever. It happens very slowly, but it happens.

It starts when you’re born. It ends when you die. The rest is transition.

“Like one song fading into another”
— Devine

Embrace the gradient. Transition in slow-motion. Be a scrappy fiddle.

I am learning. I am learning. I am practising. I am getting better very very slowly and I will never stop because I know that sharing scrappy fiddles is normal. Are you part of that or not?

Remnant from my first draft:

“And then I gave up and wrote it from scratch.”

Back to the sky.