Ordinary paradox

After 50 days of celebrating Easter, the Church has reentered Ordinary Time. (I use capital letters because I hear it with that emphasis in my mind, in a radio announcer's voice, full of echo and reverb -- Frad could do it perfectly) Ordinary should almost be ExtraOrdinary, considering there are so many fast days, feast days, memorials, commemorations, dedications and so on throughout the year.

Ordinary gets a bad rap these days. Nobody tries to sell you ordinary laundry detergent. Colleges do not woo potential students by leveraging themselves as the place where ordinary people hoping for ordinary futures go. You don't hear about ordinary vacation destinations, or homes for sale with ordinary siding, ordinary kitchens, ordinary backyards. To be of value, it would seem a thing - or a person - must be out of the ordinary way.

Ordinary is pretty nearly the perfect condition for a human being to be in. Ordinary is where we mix and mingle and be. Ordinary is where God meets us every day as we clean the dishes, or pound the keyboard for a living. However, as in all things God-related, there is a fundamental paradox: I am a bespoke creation - there is not another one out there quite like me. There is nothing ordinary about that.