I just finished Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho. In a nutshell, the book is about a girl who attempts suicide and ends up in a mental hospital. We follow Veronika and meet a number of other patients. The book was fairly complex and I bet that lots of other people took away lots of different things, but what I got from it was that it is actually good to be a little bit crazy.
A number of the characters in the book ended up in the mental hospital because they refused to conform with the expectations placed upon them. Expectations put there by society or family and friends or even themselves. One young man started to follow the occult instead of the path to a powerful government position his parents had chosen for him. Crazy, right? Another woman wanted to leave her family to go help children in South America after she has seen their plight on the news. She made herself physically ill contemplating this crazy idea.
In today's society if you choose to do something that does not conform with people's expectations for you, you are perceived as being crazy. Or perhaps you even perceive yourself as crazy. Why? Isn't it actually fabulous to follow your heart?
The book made me stop and think about all of the opportunities I missed out on because I was afraid of being crazy. My choice of college, my choice of career, travel opportunities and exciting experiences. Now, I don't look back with regret because these choices were part of my path to get where I am, but going forward I am going to try to be a bit more crazy. I am not going to allow fear of being different than people expect me to be to drive my decisions. I am going to follow my heart. Even if it sounds crazy. (Obviously with some caveats like not harming anyone.)
The day after I thought through this, I was chatting with a woman at pickup. I have to say I have always found her a tad bit crazy. She just doesn't conform. And she was telling me how the night before at 11PM her husband decided he wanted a sandwich and asked if she wanted to go out with him to get one. And she did. In her bathrobe. My immediate thought was .. crazy! And then I thought ... yeah, and that is fabulous that you wanted to go out in your bathrobe and you did. That is crazy good!
YOUR TURN
Next time you want to do something and hear that little inner voice (or the voice of someone else for that matter) tell you that it is a crazy idea, do it anyway! Dress the way you want, take the day off if you feel like it, start a new hobby, take a spur of the moment trip. Just try on crazy once in a while!
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