Insanity...

"Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results" - Albert Einstein

Let he who is not guilty of insanity speak up now or forever hold your peace. When we are little, everything in life is a game. You look to the bottom of the stairs, and rather than seeing carpet, you see a swimming pool. Imagination... do you remember it? I do.

I grew up without a lot of friends, so imagination was a tool that I used frequently, and with abandon. I was able to derive pleasure from the simplest things. (A silk sheet I used as a wind catch.) It was old and brown, but brought me hours of pleasure. (A cardboard box that was my vehicle to the stars) Everyone else saw a packing crate, but for me it was mission control, a space ship to the moon, and most importantly a kingdom where all of my friends would greet me kindly and say "King Xane! We love you!"  As I got older, it became "Uncool" to play and imagine. You had to "Hang out" and play with real toys. If you can imagine it, I wasn't very popular.

If we continue to play imagination based games as adults without children, people look at us and think that we are mentally challeged, or insane. To this I say to you:

"I am an airplane, flying through life untouched by gravity."

"I am an olympic downhill skier, about to win my 10th Gold Medal."

"I am a dinosaur hunter out to bag the biggest T-Rex ever seen."

What, you can't see it?

I'm sorry! I truely am, but know that just because you are unable to understand, doesn't mean that I am not any of the things above. And without imagination, your life must be outrageously boring, maybe I'm not sorry for you, but I feel pitty none the less. Your everyday life must be excruciating, caught in reality as you are. Unable to fly, or swim the seas, stuck in a cubicle surrounded by silent snores. When my thoughts are at their most unbound, I couldn't even imagine something so cruel. So I am sorry.

Am I insane? Maybe. But I'm okay with it, now if you'll excuse me. I'm about run into a burning building, and save some co-workers trapped in a blaze. "Our Hero!" they'll exclaim, then lift me onto their soot covered shoulders and say, "Someone give him the key to the city!"

"Don't forget that without our imaginations, we would never have achieved anything. People saw the Wright brothers as insane... and they managed to create a flying machine." - Timothy Ralston