Who decides what’s “normal”?
Are you normal? Abnormal?
When is abnormality seen as a deficit—and when is it celebrated as exceptional?
And if you are “exceptional,” do you feel pride—or pressure?
Is the pressure to maintain status stronger than the pressure to gain it?
Our next Important Conversations book club book, Neuroqueer Heresies, explores the systems that define and enforce what it means to be “normal.” In a world that demands conformity, author Nick Walker invites us to unmask, unlearn, and reimagine a more whole (maybe even liberated??) version of ourselves.
The Important Conversations book club (5 years + strong) started as a commitment of love from myself to the world. I wanted to be a greater source of understanding in a pained and divided world.
In the end, this is truly spiritual work! Important Conversations is a book club about marginalized experiences, but more than that—it’s a space of deepening humanity. Every time I learn about someone else’s truth, I learn more about my own. Every time, through these books, I witness someone boldly claiming space for their differences, I feel more empowered to believe the world has space for mine.
To become fully ourselves—not in spite of the world’s expectations, but in defiance of them—is a sacred act of reclaiming ourselves.
The goal isn’t to be normal at all. The truest goal is to be real.
To be authentic.
Divergence is divine.
Claiming all of who I am makes me sovereign over my “self” and my experience.
And transforming any system that demands we be less than our whole selves? That’s sacred work, too!
I truly hope you know this, feel this, and chase this with all of who you are! Join us!