How to be sure YOU are not the crazy one!

Have you ever wondered if you were crazy?

Here’s how to tell you aren’t. You thought about it. You questioned it. You questioned your actions and motives and thoughts with the intention of being the best person you could be. You may have even made changes, in your beliefs or actions, based on new things you’ve learned. 

Actual crazy people never question their own sanity.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not talking about folks with mental illness. I support and love everyone with mental illness in their search for acceptance and recovery.

I’m talking about bat-shit crazy people. Folks with all the evidence before them who refuse to look at it because they are so convinced that everything they do and say is right and how dare any of us ever question their wisdom.

Take for instance North Korean President Kim Jong Un who recently faxed (no really, by fax) South Korea to warn them that he will be attacking at any moment without warning. I can just imagine how this went on the other end!

What’s that noise? The fax machine? Is that thing still plugged in? Who uses faxes anymore? Oh wait, here comes the message . . . ok, okay, I think it’s coming . . . . wait, wait here it is . . . oh its North Korea, hang on I can only see the top half of the message, . . . okay here it is . . . they are giving us notice that they are attacking without notice . . . wait, wait I think there is a second page . . . .

This is the same guy who had both his uncle and his ex-girlfriend executed as “traitors” of the state! That’s what often happens when you mention that the emperor has no clothes on.

And we move on to another example from this week. Of course we have Phil Robertson. Mr. Robertson crossed a line, which is a frequent side effect of bat-shit crazy. While every single one of us has the right to the religious beliefs of our choice, and the right to follow the teachings of those beliefs, we do not have the right to inflict those beliefs on others. And since there are thousands and thousands of denominations and varieties of Christian churches in the world, all with their own doctrines and versions of “truth” it is clear that we must not only respect different religions, but different interpretations within those religions as well.

So, out of basic respect for others there are certain things we just don’t say, especially in public. This is why I am refraining, with great difficulty I might add, from saying anything funny or insulting about Mr. Robertson’s own sexual practices here . . . just basic manners.

I’m getting very tired lately of the angry back and forth. I am tired of the “war on Christmas.” I am tired of the right and the left battling over everything, absolutely everything but mostly I’m just tired of people being mean!

If you think about it, what are we battling over; the right to religious beliefs of our choice, the right to love whom we choose, the right to be who we are, the right to raise our families are we choose? Both sides are fighting for different versions of the exact same thing!!! Can we not show a little mutual respect and agree to disagree?

We are all guilty of this, both the left and the right. We are all guilty of dismissing the opinions of others based on their political party or religious beliefs. Hate speech is hate speech no matter what side you are shouting it from! We forget that we ALL have something to bring to the table. We all have something to offer. We have forgotten that the RIGHT to have differing opinions and differing religious beliefs is a privilege that not everyone has. No, you don’t have to share them but you don’t get to belittle them either, any of us!

And we don’t get to say mean, nasty things in public. And we shouldn’t say them in private either. That is the difference between healthy political discussion and bat-shit crazy. (And you have every right to point out here that bat-shit crazy is not kind, and I will not disagree). 

Speak your truth. That is your right. That is your privilege but speak it with kindness.

Those of us who strive to be better people, who try hard to listen to opinions that are different than ours (even if we fail sometimes), we’ll keep growing and learning and trying our best to make the world a better place.

But every once in a while there will be things we’ve got to just let go, people we’ve got to move on from. Sometimes we’ve got to realize that no matter how hard you try to love and reason with someone, they just aren’t going to see. They just aren’t going to change. So you have to protect yourself and your own heart and move on from that friendship or that relationship to something that is healthier for you.

Block that person on Facebook, change the TV channel, unplug the fax machine. You are not the crazy one!

 

 

 

 

 

Karen Foley

About Karen Foley

Karen Foley, has successfully been writing her blog for the BDN since May 2011. By successful, she means a few people read it, and she has not been sued, stalked or fired since starting it.