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April 17, 2013
crazy (adj.)
Today I was walking home from my yoga class, a bit drained, sluggish. My step didn't have the typical kick to it, I admit. I dejectedly dragged myself down Nelson St. with my heavy wet-clothing-filled yoga bag in tow, staring at the ground ready to plop my butt down on my couch and be done with the evening.
When out of nowhere, an elvish-sort-of female voice startled me: Why aren't you smiling? Or you just bummed out?
This voice pulled me right out of my funk. I looked up to find a lady dressed all in black on a scooter, with a spiky belt and a dirty black fedora on her head - who in most contexts would maybe look a little 'crazy' (though I admit we use that word much too loosely to describe people - I'm guilty of it, too).
However, tonight I realized what was truly "crazy" was that this sort of encounter would make most people stop in their tracks and think something abnormal, even crazy, just happened to them.
Before I mumbled out a quick "Oh, I'm alright" followed by a friendly smile, I noticed that I really wasn't bummed out - that everything was pretty good. There was no reason that I should go about my way in the world looking so closed off.
You've got a pretty smile! You should smile more. Enjoy the night.
I uttered a genuine, slow thank you followed by "Have a great evening," and another smile I couldn't keep back. And before I knew it the "crazy" lady on the scooter vanished, up the road - perhaps never to be seen again.
She was like a fairy, some little crack of light pushing its way through the facade of reality reminding me to lighten up, and rethink "crazy" and "normal." Wouldn't it be great if these kinds of encounters happened more frequently? Where eye contact in a yoga class extended into a warm hello, or an "excuse me" on a crowded bus turned into a chat about something shared. Or would that just make for a crazy world?
What does crazy mean to you? Diseased, flawed, or exciting enough that it shatters the walls we get stuck behind all too often?
When out of nowhere, an elvish-sort-of female voice startled me: Why aren't you smiling? Or you just bummed out?
This voice pulled me right out of my funk. I looked up to find a lady dressed all in black on a scooter, with a spiky belt and a dirty black fedora on her head - who in most contexts would maybe look a little 'crazy' (though I admit we use that word much too loosely to describe people - I'm guilty of it, too).
However, tonight I realized what was truly "crazy" was that this sort of encounter would make most people stop in their tracks and think something abnormal, even crazy, just happened to them.
Before I mumbled out a quick "Oh, I'm alright" followed by a friendly smile, I noticed that I really wasn't bummed out - that everything was pretty good. There was no reason that I should go about my way in the world looking so closed off.
You've got a pretty smile! You should smile more. Enjoy the night.
I uttered a genuine, slow thank you followed by "Have a great evening," and another smile I couldn't keep back. And before I knew it the "crazy" lady on the scooter vanished, up the road - perhaps never to be seen again.
She was like a fairy, some little crack of light pushing its way through the facade of reality reminding me to lighten up, and rethink "crazy" and "normal." Wouldn't it be great if these kinds of encounters happened more frequently? Where eye contact in a yoga class extended into a warm hello, or an "excuse me" on a crowded bus turned into a chat about something shared. Or would that just make for a crazy world?
crazy (adj): 1570s, "diseased, sickly," from craze (to shatter). Meaning "full of cracks or flaws" is from 1580s; "of unsound mind, or behaving as so" is from 1610s. Jazz slang sense "cool, exciting" attested by 1927.
What does crazy mean to you? Diseased, flawed, or exciting enough that it shatters the walls we get stuck behind all too often?
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