The New Normal and a Good Life

Abstract

This chapter inquires into the relation between normalcy and the good life. Beginning from a parental desire for a “normal life” for one’s children, it asks in what this desire for normalcy consists, and whether normalcy is necessary for a good life. It argues that the desire for normalcy actually springs from love: one desires to be loved for the unique individual that one is, and normalcy provides a baseline against which one’s singularity can be perceived and appreciated. Attending to the pernicious aspects of normalcy, this chapter argues that the seeming impossibility of having a good life with a significant disability arises from an inadequate conception of normalcy as having a fixed set of norms. It calls for more capacious norms that include and support lives that depart from statistical norms.