133 Marbles
A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?
Albert Einstein
I’ve mentioned that I come from a crazy family, and unfortunately I mean that literally. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, approximately 26% of the population suffers from a diagnosable mental illness. My family is letting some of your families off the hook. As Rita Mae Brown pointed out, "The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four Americans is suffering from some form of mental illness. Think of your three best friends. If they are okay, then it's you."
For most of my life I’ve tried to distance myself from the crazy - put myself in the camp of people who could distinguish what was real from what was unreal or imagined. This was a very boring approach as I’d often censor my actions to determine if my family’s craziness was at all visible - was my crinoline peeking from beneath my Victorian attire? It began to feel limiting to always be trying to hide my undergarments. My new approach is to embrace the crazy.
How can I use crazy to my advantage? Well, my own brand of crazy isn’t really on my family’s Richter scale. It is quite tame by comparison but as I write this, I sense my lingering resistance to aligning with crazy. But what are the advantages of being just crazy enough? Crazy offers more freedom to color outside the box. It offers a freedom from caring what others think about you.
Hunter S. Thompson wrote, “If you’re going to be crazy, you have to get paid for it or else you’re going to be locked up.” Perhaps in Hunter S’s spirit of gonzo journalism, I should enroll in some burlesque classes to see what the community is like from the inside. A crazy idea but maybe just crazy enough. My new mantra: Embrace the crazy.
Calvin Klein once said, “I’m crazy, and I don’t pretend to be anything else.” Are there things you could do that would contribute to your life but you shy away from because of what the neighbors would think? What your family would think? What would it take not to care what anyone thinks about you?
A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?
Albert Einstein
I’ve mentioned that I come from a crazy family, and unfortunately I mean that literally. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, approximately 26% of the population suffers from a diagnosable mental illness. My family is letting some of your families off the hook. As Rita Mae Brown pointed out, "The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four Americans is suffering from some form of mental illness. Think of your three best friends. If they are okay, then it's you."
For most of my life I’ve tried to distance myself from the crazy - put myself in the camp of people who could distinguish what was real from what was unreal or imagined. This was a very boring approach as I’d often censor my actions to determine if my family’s craziness was at all visible - was my crinoline peeking from beneath my Victorian attire? It began to feel limiting to always be trying to hide my undergarments. My new approach is to embrace the crazy.
How can I use crazy to my advantage? Well, my own brand of crazy isn’t really on my family’s Richter scale. It is quite tame by comparison but as I write this, I sense my lingering resistance to aligning with crazy. But what are the advantages of being just crazy enough? Crazy offers more freedom to color outside the box. It offers a freedom from caring what others think about you.
Hunter S. Thompson wrote, “If you’re going to be crazy, you have to get paid for it or else you’re going to be locked up.” Perhaps in Hunter S’s spirit of gonzo journalism, I should enroll in some burlesque classes to see what the community is like from the inside. A crazy idea but maybe just crazy enough. My new mantra: Embrace the crazy.
Calvin Klein once said, “I’m crazy, and I don’t pretend to be anything else.” Are there things you could do that would contribute to your life but you shy away from because of what the neighbors would think? What your family would think? What would it take not to care what anyone thinks about you?
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