Insanity

Hey there on this lovely Tuesday morning! I'm in a great mood today so far, but that could be because I started my day with coffee and Regis & Kelly. Anyway, for literature today, I had to write a paper about insanity to go along with the chapter on Edgar Allen Poe. It's not very good but I thought I'd share it despite that fact.
-taye


Sanity or Insanity? That is the question.

Sanity is defined as the state of being sane, or having a soundness of mind, but what is sanity really? And by whose standards is “being sane” defined?
Some might define sanity as thinking in a normal state, but then if one defines it as that, by whose standards is normality defined? The list could continue endlessly.

One might believe that sanity would be a simple attribute to posses, however in my opinion it is madness or insanity that is much easier to attain and hold onto. Madness is defined as the quality of being insane, or senseless folly. However, folly is not a word that comes to mind when I think of madness. Folly is a fault or foolishness, but I think to have to the courage to be mad is genius. Marilyn Monroe once said “Madness is genius…” and though she is not necessarily one I would want to model my life after, I believe that she was correct with this statement.
Take the book or the movies of Alice in Wonderland for example. The Mad Hatter is brilliant! Indeed he is also extremely mad and out of his head, yet he has always been my favorite character for that very reason. He thinks in a completely unconventional way that most shy away from, and though others view him as insane, brilliance is a result of that madness. The most recent version of this tale is director Tim Burton’s take on the story and it has such a wonderful quote. The Mad Hatter asks Alice if he is mad and she cleverly replies with the following: “You're mad, bonkers, off your head! But I'll tell you a secret: All the best people are.” And it is true, the best people are insane.

To go in the opposite direction from Lewis Carroll’s mad tale, take Jesus for example. He came to the world normally as a baby born to a mother and father, Mary and Joseph. Joseph must have though Mary completely insane when she told him how Jesus was conceived, in fact, at the beginning he did not believe her and planned to “Divorce her quietly”. Similarly, throughout Jesus’ ministries here on the earth numerous people must have thought Him to be crazy. He performed many miracles such as healing the blind or crippled, and even raising the dead to life again! The chief priests thought Him insane when He told them that if they were to tear down the temple, He would raise it again in three days. However, the world thought Christ insane because they did not know Him; they did not understand Him. Continued into the present, this misunderstanding of Christ has caused people to think Him as well as Christians insane.

Therefore, in my opinion, insanity, within reason, is an attribute, not a fault. Though others may disagree, I believe that it takes immense courage to be insane or even just to take a stand on what you believe in resulting in being though insane by some.