There is no dark side of the moon, really. Matter of fact, it’s all dark. ~ Pink Floyd
Name me a Boomer in my cohort who doesn’t love Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon album. Maybe there are some, but I’m not one of them. The songs on this LP speak to me of my college days, of love beads and peace symbols and heavy music.
But the album is really about madness. Insanity.
No, not depression or garden-variety stuff. I’m taking dark stuff. Dark matter.
It’s there and we don’t have to look too far to find it. We just have to be aware.
That kind of awareness isn’t a natural state.
Now here’s the fact: I have a pretty broad tolerance for aberrance. I find it interesting. And normal, even. Yeah, I know, that sounds like a contradiction.
But that’s how I see it. I’ve always found the norm kind of–boring. Vanilla.
Abnormal is not a word I relate well to.
At the same time, I think I appreciate deviance from the norm in a normal way. As in, I don’t thing there’s anything warped about it.
It turns out, though, that many people who think/act a few standard deviations from the norm really do have deep-seated problems
and their deviance is not so much thinking outside the box as it is a pathological response to a sort of insanity.
Madness, in a way.
From time to time, personally destructive insanity bursts through my door and makes itself known. My eyes widen, I recoil, shocked to the core, because all along I’d viewed it as just a simple divergence from the norm.
Once the black hole of pathology makes itself known there’s no going back. I can never look at that person the same way.
I like my view of different thinking and I’m going to keep it.
But you can bet that, in the immortal words of another rocker, Bruce Springsteen, I’ll be keeping that darkness on the edge of town. Way out and away from me.
Big difference between abnormal and insanity, isn’t there. I guess what surprises me (and probably shouldn’t) is when those who seem to color, consistently (at least in public forums), inside the lines go off the rails – not just a few standard deviations off the mean but full on BS Crazy…. Happened to me very recently in a phone conversation I expected to be good and supportive and took me so off guard, that I could not figure out what to say! Yeah, that is the first time that has happened to me in longer than I can remember :)! It is the out of nowhere insanity that throws me for a loop.
Me too, Ruth. I’ve also experienced falling down a rabbit hole. I’m more amd more convinced that online human behavior is particularly prone to dysfunction.
I like ‘different’ out-side-the box thinking and behavior, but CRAZY is another thing. I’ve seen CRAZY and it’s destructive, soul sucking, and empty. I don’t like visiting that neighborhood.
I think each of us has a madly dark side, some just have it closer to the surface than others. They are more in tune to it so it doesn’t control them. They revel in it.
Reading these comments makes me wish we were all closer so we could get together just to prove how crazy we are. But Carol, please don’t expose my black hole of pathology…
That’s funny hubby fell asleep wearing that T shirt tonight. It’s alright to take a curve just don’t make a complete turn either way. Straight is just dull.
I think most of us writers lean toward or at least somewhat relate to being outside of normal. I’m repelled by vanilla too. I guess that’s pretty normal, average for writerly types. Oh no! Kind if ironic.
Here you’ll find my blog, some of my essays, published writing, and my solo performances. There’s also a link to my Etsy shop for healing and grief tools offered through A Healing Spirit.
I love comments, so if something resonates with you in any way, don’t hesitate to leave a comment on my blog. Thank you for stopping by–oh, and why not subscribe so you don’t miss a single post?
I come from a long line of crazy people. I try to use mine to my advantage.
And you do!
Crazy is a good word in my dictionary, Carol. I pride myself too on being ‘different’!
Big difference between abnormal and insanity, isn’t there. I guess what surprises me (and probably shouldn’t) is when those who seem to color, consistently (at least in public forums), inside the lines go off the rails – not just a few standard deviations off the mean but full on BS Crazy…. Happened to me very recently in a phone conversation I expected to be good and supportive and took me so off guard, that I could not figure out what to say! Yeah, that is the first time that has happened to me in longer than I can remember :)! It is the out of nowhere insanity that throws me for a loop.
Me too, Ruth. I’ve also experienced falling down a rabbit hole. I’m more amd more convinced that online human behavior is particularly prone to dysfunction.
Different is . . . interesting. Here’s to interesting! But not edge of town interesting! 🙂
I like ‘different’ out-side-the box thinking and behavior, but CRAZY is another thing. I’ve seen CRAZY and it’s destructive, soul sucking, and empty. I don’t like visiting that neighborhood.
It’s what makes writers. I can’t look away. It sucks me in like a Hoover!
I like different, it’s what makes the world go around. I’ve been around CRAZY…it’s not so good.
I’m with Cheryl. Being different is something to be celebrated as being unique, being DARK is sometimes freaky. Great thoughts.
I prefer to think of myself as unique, but I suspect a few folks would call me nuts. And those are the ones who love me!
I think each of us has a madly dark side, some just have it closer to the surface than others. They are more in tune to it so it doesn’t control them. They revel in it.
There’s quite a difference between eccentric and pathological. Sometimes you don’t know the difference until it’s too late.
Reading these comments makes me wish we were all closer so we could get together just to prove how crazy we are. But Carol, please don’t expose my black hole of pathology…
I think too many of us have just gotten comfortably numb.
That’s funny hubby fell asleep wearing that T shirt tonight. It’s alright to take a curve just don’t make a complete turn either way. Straight is just dull.
I think most of us writers lean toward or at least somewhat relate to being outside of normal. I’m repelled by vanilla too. I guess that’s pretty normal, average for writerly types. Oh no! Kind if ironic.
Well, it depends on what you do with your crazy. I create imaginary friends and lovers.