Squelching Insanity

Something that alarms me is the popularity of insanity. Not actual insanity, mind you, but the idea of insanity. Romanticized insanity, you might say. It’s trendy. Or maybe sanity is just unpopular. Whatever the case, its wrong!

People everywhere believe that there is more to life than all that they can see or perceive. We are constantly striving to find that hidden meaning, to discover the universal equation, as it were. Now sanity, to us, seems to mean the tedium of everyday life. Sanity indicates we should get on a good career path, balance our checkbook, find a good spouse and have 3.25 kids and set aside a college fund for them early. Then we grow old, die, and that’s it. There’s something fundamentally unattractive to all that.

Insane people, on the other hand, are wacky and fun and certainly not tedious. They hear voices and talk to people who aren’t there. Sometimes they have a couple of different personalities. It’s like they are their own party. And in the desperate tedium of our sane lives that looks like it might be a window into a larger world. At the very least it sets you aside, makes you different and attention worthy, and dependant on those around you for care, which seems to be appealing in a way as well.

Well first off, let me make it absolutely clear: insanity is NOT fun. Not being able to trust your own mind and senses is possibly the most terrifying thing conceivable for a human being. Second off, if it is any comfort, we are all a LITTLE bit insane. Or perhaps I should say, none of us are as sane as we would like to be. Because sanity is more than just the tedium of everyday life, it is figuring out the BEST way to live. It is a rock-solid grasp of just what your meaning and purpose in life is and it is rising to that occasion absolutely. So instead of trying to become LESS sane, you people need to be working on becoming MORE sane.

I’m glad we had this little talk.