Normal Vision? is the fourth book in the Normal? series. These books fall into the humanist style. Humanist authors seek to elucidate the societal and personal injustices of their times. While the Normal? series mentions many contemporary societal and personal injustices the various characters have faced, or are currently facing, the focus is much more on the universal solution to all injustices-that being love. In the previous books of the Normal? series, Stephen Mulrooney's stories not only bring the reader through some of the most basic and universal struggles of individual, familial, and societal life, his characters transport the reader to the answers and solutions to each of these struggles in their expressions of awareness, wisdom, open-mindedness, acceptance, mutual support, community, caring, charity, relationship, and love. Once again, Normal Vision? introduces the reader to new characters with their own individual and yet universal struggles. And just as in the past, with each new character, with their own individual "flaw", Stephen Mulrooney shows us the "flaw" is but a shadow cast upon the character by others, or society in general. As Victor Hugo stated in Les Misérables, "The guilty one is not the person who has committed the sin, but the person who has created the shadow." As in the previous books, here in Normal Vision? Stephen Mulrooney reminds us of our own missed opportunities to see or do better, or more in our own lives. And then he provides for us new perspectives, new solutions to complex struggles and problems, and most importantly, new paradigms for us to consider and adopt, just as easy as every new member of the extended Poole-Hall family. Jerome Van Wert, Publisher Busterfly LLC

Prologue

Our son Surdas was born blind. But that never stopped him from having better-than-normal vision. Mother says, "Foresight is the best substitute for sight. It allows you to see something that everyone else is blind to, and to envision something that no one else has ever seen. When it comes to vision, the eyes do not always have it." A person with foresight has the unique ability to think and plan for the future with imagination and wisdom. We call these people visionaries, because they have the foresight to see what is invisible to everyone else and bring it into reality. They see things as they can be. They see things as they should be, not just the way they are. Their visions are the building blocks of the future. Mother says, "A visionary takes a set of Legos and turns it into a time machine. What the world does not see, the builder has already envisioned. Superman may be able to see through things, but a person with vision will see things through." Mother has inspired our entire extended family to always see things through. In doing so, he has given us better-than-normal vision. Surdas is in every sense of the word a visionary. He believes his blindness gives him insights that sighted people often don't recognize. It allows his imagination to run wild, unfettered by the weight of how things appear when they become too familiar. It allows his other senses to more than compensate for the one he is missing. It allows him to perceive things from a new perspective. He has vision where others merely have sight. Mother believes that people with sight, but who lack vision, lead normal lives, because they are blind to the magic in the world. But Surdas's life is anything but normal. Surdas has vision beyond sight. Life without vision is merely living. It is a place where dreams and fantasies come to die. Life with vision is creating. It is a place where dreams and fantasies come to life. Surdas intends to lead his life as a creator ... a builder of dreams ... a life-giver to possibilities. He intends for all his dreams and fantasies to come to life. Surdas doesn't need a mirror to see who and what he is. He sees it within.