"I don't think being polite and being totally honest can happen at the same time."

Although it's certainly possible to be honest politely, to tell the truth in a pleasant tone at least, honesty is not always in one's best interest.  Try telling a buffoonish incompetent boss what you honestly think of him or her when your paycheck is the more immediate concern.  

The ten times a day I mutter, "Not my circus, not my monkeys."   

One of my biggest sources of, well... just trying not to be pissed off every day, is learning how to merely go along to get along in a situation I'm not ready to remove myself from.  I could be honest and get fired.  I could be polite and suffer silently.  (These choices after all my rational adult-like attempts at polite, respectful constructive dialogue failed miserably.)  

For me, "normal" boils down to winding up on the positive end of thousands of daily choices -- a complex balancing act.  Fight or flight/surrender as it relates to the biggest and smallest issues, diet (all day!) even.  All the times I'm left vibrating when I or someone else says, "Just let it go."

More to the point, how can I begin to evaluate "normal" when I only say or do perhaps 1% of what I think and feel?  I'm thinking that being "normal" is riding the scale to the ever so slight positive end of self-control, restraint and what I allow to eek out to others: (in some circumstances) the tiny percentage of the politeness, courtesy and respect -- civility -- versus what I honestly think and feel.

All of that in the context of self-interests (on many levels), self-preservation and... survival.  Pity the fate of that person with no filters!  Epiphany!: "normal" means having appropriate filters!  Or perhaps no epiphany... perhaps it's as simple as Cynthia's view: "Gawd I hate that word, "normal," because it doesn't mean much in the scheme of life."

I sat down to try to write funny things about sagging, gravity, dads in mirrors (not funny!), the current post-cult hoops we all face and especially the "Are you having your nose made bigger or smaller?" things we logically and innocently say.