 I AM "IN SANE"
I have always had this one question in my mind since I was little: What's so wrong about being insane? It all started when I wanted to open up "communication holes" by biting our next-door neighbor's daughter's arm. She didn't want speak to me. I thought her external auditory canals were not good enough to understand me, so being at the age of five and believing that this was the only solution to our problem, I simply
bit her.
As you can imagine this caused serious problems. I just remember the part where my mother and our neighbor fought, because she had asked whether I had been vaccinated for having rabies. Of course, I also remember the part where I was severely punished (no candy or TV for 15 days).
After I tried to explain why I did such a thing, which was obvious if you had asked me at the time, my mother was seriously worried and demanded, "ARE YOU INSANE?" My answer as a five-year-old was, as you might guess, "Umm…. I don't know." How was I supposed to know? I was five, I did not know what that word meant and nearly everything made sense to me. I thought there really were mermaids, fairies, unicorns and I hopelessly wanted to be one for heavens sake!
Anyway, after this incident I came up with the idea of creating real "communication holes" which were basically seven holes on a box covered with different materials (aluminum foil, tissue, paper). Each hole made a different sound and helped me communicate. Now, as a five-year-old that was something I was proud of. In addition, somehow my relationship had improved with my little friend next door. So logically I thought that I had done the right thing after all, even though my parents gave an "extreme" reaction to it. So my mother was right, I probably was insane.
Years have passed since this "tragic" event. Now I'm at college, and I guess it would not surprise you if I said that I still do, occasionally, come face to face with the same question: "Are you insane?"
However, today I have a different answer, "I'm afraid I am". One thing has still not changed, though. I still fail to understand why this is such a horrible thing.
Well, you might be wondering why I fail to understand something that other people find pretty easy to comprehend.
Here's the thing: Most of the greatest people I know, actually all the greatest people I know, admire, and dream to someday do the things they have done, are considered to bear the characteristics of a person who is mentally deranged. To state it in basic English, they are labeled "INSANE." Should I be afraid?
The first person I would refer to would be none other than Salvador Dali. I'm a true devoted fan. There are some official records that indicate that the forefather of surrealism could be mentally unstable. I think I could say that his "insanity" is very well-known. I have come across some stories that are proof of his insanity. My favorite one depicts the way he likes to take his naps. He apparently liked to take his nap sitting in a chair that he had placed on a tile floor with a spoon in his hand. When he fell deep asleep the spoon would fall down so he would wake up with the sound that it made.
Pythagoras, the Greek mathematician who came up with the Pythagorean theorem we all learned in school ("The square of the hypotenuse of a right triangle is equal to the sum of the square of the other two sides") is another person who is "insane." He is believed to have created a religion. Pythagoras' religion had two primary tenets: souls are reincarnated, and beans are evil. Normal, plain beans that we come across every day, the ones you can buy in any store near you, not beans in metaphorical sense. One of the greatest commandments of Pythagoreanism include: Do not, under any circumstances, eat beans.
Hans Christian Andersen, Winston Churchill, Vincent Van Gogh, Edgar Allen Poe, Agatha Christie, Ludwig van Beethoven, Virginia Woolf and many other amazing people were, according to some, without any doubt "insane."
So please someone tell me, what's so wrong about being insane?
All these people have done wonderful things and they are insane?
Basically is a person sane when that person does the things that the majority does? Lacks originality? Doesn't create something? Does what is told? Wears clothing according to the latest trends? Buys everything that the modern society urges him to buy? Says things that have been said a million times? Never questions? Is that sane?
I'm sorry, but I have to disagree.
If you ask me, being insane in a sane world is SANE…
So go ahead, I know you all have it in you.
Show your insanity!
By Eda Erdem (TRIN/IV)
a_erdem@ug.bilkent.edu.tr
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