Normal?

My friend Farquar told me that drink allowed him to be like other people, that is, normal.  He thought everyone else normal and he was weird.  He had feelings that made him feel uncomfortable.  He thought no one else had his feelings.  Farquar sometimes felt lonely, uncomfortable in his own skin, unloveable and confused.  Drink was his solution to these feelings.  The uncomfortable feelings went away.  By the time Farquar came to me he had passed normal and become a drunk.  I told him that his feelings were normal.  It is part of the human condition to have all kinds of feelings.  The solution was to feel first.  Farquar was surprised that normal was so difficult.  But he was relieved to know that he was not crazy.  He gave up drink as the solution.  The escape from normal is worse than normal. At least Farquar has learned it to be so.