Click images for desktop size: "Kabaret Poster" by Unknown I heard someplace that a definition of insanity is to repeat the same actions over and over again and always expecting a different result . . . I think that sort of mean we're all insane in one way or another. A realization most of us have about the time we turn thirteen, or shortly after that time when we start being interested in girls (or boys).
But if we're all a touch insane I'd guess that madness is the norm . . . and that would explain why we need so many definitions for insanity. And it would explain why there's so many fascinating books about it. Not just text books either. Its nice to read about ourselves and then if it gets uncomfortable to be able to say that its really not us but some alien thing that lives far over there, behind a tall fence. Preferably electrified.
The legal definition of insanity is, I think, the dullest. Does he know the difference between right and wrong. It harkens back to the Spanish Inquisition and that odd determination that man was born with an instinctive knowledge of god. If he weren't he was a heretic or worse.
For a guy like Jeffrey Dahmer killing and eating your one night stands was exactly the right thing to do. Not eating them was wrong.
Charles Schmidt, mad teenager, picked up two girls and murdered them out of boredom. He couldn't even properly bury the evidence. He left one girls sneakered foot sticking out of her shallow grave. Digging holes tried his patience. To not tell his friends about his crime was wrong to him. It seemed right to his teen friends about it so they could go out and look at the rotting corpses. To them to tell an adult about it or a cop would have been wrong.
Right and wrong seem like a sticky wicket to me. It depends on what most of us have been taught. Like in Charles Schmidt's case all those teens who went and had a beer over the bodies of their old friends was right and within the teen community not ratting out Charlie was the right thing to do.
The clinical/"committ that sucker" definition bothers me too. "Presents a danger to himself and/or others". Jesus Christ was divine, all powerful but he allowed people to scourge him and then crucify him. That's certainly putting yourself in danger but no one would call Christ insane. Every time someone speeds down a
Click images for desktop size: "Longboard At Sunser" by Richard Clark residential street they present a clear danger to kids but you can't or at least don't call them insane. Even drunk drivers don't get treated like lunatics.
This is why I took two philosophy classes in school and then transfered to Calculus. Math was easier on my brain . . .
Contrary to hopes or maybe expectations, I'm not going insane. At least not more so than usual. Its just that once again contrary to common sense or sanity I've done something stupid again.
When I'm unwell I push myself hard until either I break or whatever is bothering me breaks.
I think I always lose these contests.
Walking 9 miles, doing all the yard work has pushed me past the limit. I ache all over and feel worse than being sick . . .
Today the plan is to not be unsane. To take the day off and let my body heal.
My goals for today are to take a walk with my puppies, not a death march but just a walk to the pet store to get flea junk. Fleas are most definitely insane because I say so.
I expect the new DSL modem to be delivered today so I'll hook that up. I've had about 10 hours sleep the past 3 days, can't remember before that, so I'll put on a "good" movie and hope to fall asleep in the middle of it.
And that's it.
This will enable me to go back to my eccentric orbit tomorrow of accomplishing more than any two people could ever dream . . . At least that's what I tell myself. We all have to tell ourselves stuff like that once in a while or we might stop being human.
I wonder if the new modem will work as transparently as I hope.