Somewhere in this process, you will come face-to-face with the sudden and shocking realization that you are completely crazy. Your mind is a shrieking, gibbering madhouse on wheels barreling pell-mell down the hill, utterly out of control and hopeless. No problem. You are not crazier than you were yesterday. It has always been this way, and you just never noticed. You are also no crazier than everybody else around you. The only real difference is that you have confronted the situation; they have not. So they still feel relatively comfortable. That does not mean that they are better off. Ignorance may be bliss, but it does not lead to liberation. So don't let this realization unsettle you. It is a milestone actually, a sign of real progress. The very fact that you have looked at the problem straight in the eye means that you are on your way up and out of it.

-- From Chapter 7 of Mindfulness In Plain English

I've lately been noticing the fact that I (and most of the rest of humanity) am stark, raving mad. I'm reminded of this at least 14 times a day ... usually by something I (or someone else) said, or by some silly little stray thought.

When I notice this, my initial inclination is usually to run around bashing my head into things and screaming "Get me out of here!". But that passes after about 1/10th of a second or so, and I think about my own state and what I should be doing right now to make it better. Sometimes this is helpful and productive, and sometimes (like last night) it leads to more insanity.

I once briefly considered putting signs on the inside/outside of my front door: "Insane Asylum"/"EXIT".

Perhaps I should buy a beach house and start calling myself Wonko the Sane.

-- Des