You so craaaaazy!

“The worst thing to call anyone is ‘crazy’. It’s dismissive.”
Dave Chapelle.

This was a blurb on Inside the Actor’s Studio before a commercial and I thought about the entire time. I mean, I didn’t change channels or ANYTHING because the comment intrigued me. Granted, he was mostly talking about celebrities who are having a breakdown of sorts but I felt he was limiting the concept. He explained how you have to be tough and strong to make it in the entertainment industry so when you see Martin Lawrence running around the streets with a gun or Mariah Carey taking her clothes off on TRL, you need to thin about what got them to that point and not simply say “they’re crazy” and forget about it.
But extend that out.
When someone comes to us and tells an idea of theirs that sounds silly or risky or just plain dumb and they go ahead with it, we consider them crazy.
Electricity.
Telephone.
Internet.
White out.
Post-it Notes.
Climbing Everest.
Hangliding.
Powered flight.
Skydiving.
Seeing eye dogs.
Helper monkeys.
Think about how INSANE these things and more must’ve seemed to people. Thinking about them now it seems like so many things are obvious.
The guy that designed the Smiley Face thought it was just a job and silly.
The guy who came up with the pet rock expected to sell a few hundred.
The slinky was an accident.
I believe so was gum, wasn’t it?
Our world changes constantly based on the crazy ideas of some folks.
But not every idea is going to be validated through time.
Not every risky venture in Hollywood can result in a Titanic or a Star Wars or a Passion of the Christ. Just look at how many have tried and failed.
Not every bomb at the box office can be a Waterworld.
Huh?
What do I mean by that?
Waterworld ultimately made its money back. People forget that. Silly people.
Crazy is a word thrown around much too often.
But it’s not for any of the reasons above that got me thinking that day I caught the show or why I felt compelled to write.
It’s for the people we all know who get labeled crazy.
OR worse… the ones that label THEMSELVES that.
Sure, they may use words like “depressed” or “ADD” or “SAD” or “broken” or “effed up in the head” or any number of others.
Some really do have something wrong up top. A chemical imbalance or traumatic experiences or something else.
But most tend to have issues they are more than capable of handling but feel overwhelmed because of the label that exists in their mind.
CRAZYThey feel they just aren’t right.
Some get told how crazy they are. Some get treated that way. Some begin to believe they aren’t like other people and can’t act like normal people or be around normal people and run and hide.
They become afraid to let their craziness become too well known.
I enjoy some amount of eccentricities. They are fun to watch and be a part of. Shoot, I have plenty of my own. I do crazy things. I actually know I have points of view that many don’t understand and call crazy.
But that’s the key.
They simply don’t UNDERSTAND.
We, as a race, don’t simply fear that which we don’t understand. We HATE it. Anything different than us must be bad and wrong. If it isn’t, well, then we must be wrong for not being like that, right?
I like women.
I love them.
But I don’t have to think homosexuality is “bad” or “wrong” or “unnatural” in order to validate my love of women. It’s wrong for ME, yes, but not wrong in general.
Heck, the way I see it... the more gay men out there, the more single women for ME.
Just like when my sister came out and worried I would be upset with her. Why? I didn’t get this. She said it was because we have half our family coming from the south who WOULD disown her if they ever found out. I simply told her I didn’t care either way. Not like I’d be upset she was “off the market”, you know? Though it DID make it odd when we would go out and check out the same women.
So why the tangent? Because some people call gay people crazy when it’s really just something they don’t understand or are afraid of because it challenges THEIR lifestyle.
I have enough crazy ideas in my head… ones that truly ARE crazy. I don’t need to be told anything that is just odd or different is also crazy otherwise I need to get fitted for my wraparound jacket ASAP.
Because of this, I have always tried to understand why people do things. I am fascinated by motivation. It’s when people do things that I don’t understand that I tend to ask the most questions. I WANT to understand why. I don’t tend to write too many people off as crazy. I have only met a couple of truly crazy people, not counting a few vagrants who MAY have just been faking it.
Even still, I wondered what could’ve taken them to that point in life.
Why does a beautiful and intriguing young woman consider herself “broken” simply because she requires medication to help her handle stress?
How is that different from a person who needs medication to keep their heart rate steady or their blood sugar in check?
OR someone dealing with an addiction who sees themselves as messed up instead of seeing it as a problem that they have identified and want to get help on… how is that different from a smoker or an alcoholic?
Why should someone who has too many regrets in their past not see it as a building block for their future instead of a reason to hold themselves back or as an excuse to keep doing whatever it is? Not because they’re crazy. It’s because they’re afraid or simply feeling weak.
Probably because of all the jerks who called them crazy over their life.Anyway… sorry if I rambled a bit. It’s been on my mind so I wanted to write about it.