Normality? Keeping one’s insanity a secret. (Cvetanova)
Ever wondered how truly goofy you might be? Haven’t we all . . . And for sure, you’ve wondered about your spouse or your parents or siblings or friends. Or bosses. And maybe at times the whole world has seemed insane to you — it has to me. Remember the old jest about ” everyone’s insane except you and me and sometimes I wonder about you”?
Since this is a lighthearted look at a very painful and serious topic, forgive me for the liberties I take with definitions. “Insanity” is really a legal term. And those in psychological circles, we being more than a little “strange” ourselves, have fought over what is normal and what is abnormal forever. Sadly, the terms insane, crazy, nuts, out of one’s mind, deranged, mad, nutty, screwy, batty, crackers, cuckoo, loco, touched (and on and on) are more often than not used as weapons and insults — a good way to dismiss a person or an issue with whom or which we disagree. For example, in our present rancorous political climate, how many times have you heard one side say about the opposition: “well, that was highly creative!”
My husband, who as I have mentioned fondly before is both a shrink and a curmudgeon, growls that insanity is doing the same *#<**%! thing over and over again, and expecting different results –— like going back to an empty well expecting it to have water this time, a particular problem of my own!
And don’t we all have little peculiarities; weird habits, notions, beliefs; eccentricities? — I don’t want to dismiss the tragic reality of what is popularly (and mistakenly, to my way of thinking) called “mental illness”, but I so wish we could celebrate those things that make us each the wondrous and peculiar people that we are, rather than disparaging them in ourselves or others.
How’s about, in these days of “crazy” movements, we start our own: making words like wacky, mad, loco, weird, and yes, even insane and crazy, terms of endearment and affirmation and new possibility???
Yeah! I like that. I shall be a movement of one. Join me if you like.