Insanity vs. Reality

“I’ve lived for over 40 years and I’ve seen… life, as it is. Pain, misery, cruelty beyond belief. I’ve heard all the voices of God’s noblest creatures. Moans from bundles of filth in the street. I’ve been a soldier and a slave. I’ve seen my comrades fall in battle or die more slowly under the lash in Africa. I’ve held them at the last moment. These were men who saw life, as it is. Yet they died despairing. No glory, no brave last words. Only their eyes filled with confusion, questioning why. I do not think they were asking why they were dying, but why they had ever lived.

“When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? Perhaps to be too practical is madness. To surrender dreams, this may be madness. To seek treasure where there is only trash. Too much sanity may be madness! And maddest of all, to see life as it is, and not as it should be!”

- Miguel de Cervantes character in “Man of La Mancha”

What fascinates me about Don Quixote is how the story illustrates the thin line between sanity and lunacy. Who is sane, really? The “white collared conservative flashing down the street pointing his plastic finger at me?” The ones who are “already pulling the plow, so quick to take to grain like some old mule?” The ones who spend their Sundays in Pleasant Valley burning charcoal?

Or are the sane ones the people who step out of life’s pipeline and say, “why?” We have to eat, surely, but do we have to succumb?

The pandemic affected us, and continues to affect us, more than we realize. It still lingers, my friends. We still have over 450 people dying per day of COVID in this country. The pandemic made a lot of people sit back and think about whether that 45-60 minute commute each way to a 12x12 cubicle is really worth it. Or of being at the beck and call of a scheduler who is telling you that you absolutely need to be there at 5am on Sunday or don’t bother coming back. Not coming back looks pretty damned inviting sometimes. It’s called the Great Awakening, and boy does it have The Man reeling. The Man, he does not like the tumble weeds blowing around his nice and shiny new office buildings. He does not like having to dip into his windfall profits to actually pay people. He sure does, however, love to complain about how “people don’t want to work anymore” at jobs where algorithms run their lives.

I think about the people who are considered nuts - or who maybe really are nuts. The arts and rock and roll and hip hop and fashion are all populated by people who are outrageous. They wear clothes we would never wear walking down the street. Except, when we go clubbing, or go out to concerts or galleries. Then we can wear crazy shit, and scream and yell, and be ourselves.

“Be ourselves.” Think about it. When are we really ourselves? When we are doing what we love, with people whom we love. When we are letting our spark glow. We are all facets of God, with the capacity to dazzle the world with our own unique brilliance.

And you know, when we do? We are considered crazy. Crazy to pursue and spend time and money on what we love. We are crazy to spend time and money on what we believe.

I have friends who have dropped out of a “normal life” to pursue their dreams, to pursue their art. They just stopped doing what they were expected to do, stopped doing the safe thing. And at the time they made their move, a lot of people thought they were crazy. I mean crazy. “You are doing what? Moving to India? Taking pictures? Acting for God’s sake? You are leaving your cubicle for that pipe dream?”

But back to Don Quixote. Is it sane to grind away at life doing what you hate? Is that sanity, really? Or is the real sanity to reject all that and save the world from windmills?

I. Time and Space are Illusions

From The Daily Beast:

A concept called “quantum entanglement” suggests the fabric of the universe is more interconnected than we think. And it also suggests we have the wrong idea about reality.

Sanity, in many circles, means to “accept reality.” But let me tell you, we have no idea what reality is. All we know of reality is what we can see and experience with the limited resources of our senses. We see a narrow band of light. We see a subset of colors - the mantis shrimp can see colors we cannot even imagine. We taste and smell a small subset of what is available to taste and smell. We hear a narrow band of sound. The objects that feel so solid to us are mostly space.

And now, it turns out, even space and time are apparently illusions. The Daily Beast article is not an easy read, but it is worth reading. In summary, the concept of quantum entanglement is when two particles are connected across a large distance. When one is changed, the other is changed as well - instantaneously, as if there were no distance between them, and with no communications between them. It just happens. And this is leading scientists to believe that instead of the universe being in a fabric of space and time, it is really: everything everywhere, all at once. There is no space, there is no time. We are one unified whole, and not separate at all. We are one.

Now tell me, who are the crazy ones? The ones who believe that those people are agin us!? Or those of us who realize, we are all one. Do you know that Dr. Bronner went to an insane asylum for preaching that? Sometimes it takes a while for everyone to catch up.

II. The Mighty Hip Einie

And speaking of physics, here is a refresher on Albert Einstein from the brilliant Lord Buckley. Lord Buckley is definitely his own man with his own style, and he has been known to be called crazy.

Now here is a cat that carried so much wiggage, he was gigless.

Please, find your art, find your love, and do it. Enjoy the insanity. Enjoy being weird to other people.

Thank you for reading this week’s “Things to Realize.” Please like and share, please comment, and if you haven’t already, subscribe, my friends, subscribe.