WHATEVER KEEPS YOU SANE

CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith for the Years of Winter… ©

Bryan Bowers, the great folk singer and Hall of Fame auto-harpist was in town to do a concert and we took him to lunch. Local therapist Deborah joined us at The Runcible Spoon. Whenever some strange or quirky behavior was mentioned, and there are plenty mentioned when Bryan is around, Deborah said, “Whatever keeps you sane.”

That, of course, is her job, keeping people sane.

No one really knows what sanity is. I think it is the ability to choose not to be stupid.

All of us teeter on the brink of insanity, because we walk so closely to the abyss of stupidity. I don’t mean absence of IQ, but absence of awareness. Most of us do stupid things not because we are evil—and there are exceptions, of course—but because we don’t think very long or very well before we act. We just don’t choose well.

In those times when I am sane, it is because I have learned from others how to make good choices.

Sanity is not behaving like everyone else. In fact, it is often the exact opposite, the ability to choose the right way when all around us are running thoughtlessly in the wrong direction.

Whatever keeps you sane… Other people can drive you crazy, but the right ones can keep you sane.

John Robert McFarland

johnrobertmcfarland@gmail.com

I tweet as yooper1721.