Fundamentally fascinating
A touch of madness
“You’re mad. Bonkers. Off your head – but I’ll tell you a secret – all the best people are” - Lewis Carroll – Alice in Wonderland. This is one of my favourite lines from one of my favourite movies of all time. It is true, being the mystery that I am, I do tend to have numerous favourites and you will often hear me exclaim (or more like shriek), “That’s my favourite part/thing/show/colour/song...
It was just the other morning that the word “dysfunctional” was used in the same sentence as my name. I almost took offence, thankfully though, I didn’t. Granted, it was never intended to be for the ears of yours truly and as one would normally jump to some or another lunatic assumption, expecting the worst, I chose the element of surprise rather. Instead of taking immediate offence, I decided to explore this word, “dysfunctional” a little more, who knew, maybe I could regard the statement as complimentary instead of offensive. After consulting with my good friends, the Oxford Dictionary and Google, I discovered the following treasures.
The word dysfunctional is an adjective, (ok, we know that, but what else…?). In the Oxford Dictionary we read that the definition of dysfunctional is, “Not operating normally”. A wave of sheer relief washed over me as I drank in the authentic aura of the situation I found myself wrapped up in. Just think about it, I came frightfully close to taking offence instead of rather seeing its intention as complimentary. I came so close to hurting somebody’s feelings when I almost retaliated in anger and hurt, instead of gratitude and appreciation at this, obviously well intended, compliment. (For those who are not catching my drift – this is a slight touch on sarcasm some would call it – I prefer calling my tone, a touch of positivity, turning a nasty into a pretty)
It is no secret that I can rarely be placed in a class accustomed to regular occurrences of normality and for that I am tremendously elated. Besides making me chocolate and ice-cream hungry, these discoveries were breaking open new worlds in my mind as I was forced to explore more undisclosed avenues, this time taking a closer look at the word “normal”. I chose to consult the same Oxford Dictionary as earlier and discovered the following: the definition of normal is also an adjective and its meaning is – “conforming to the standard, usual, typical or expected.” Oh hell no, that is by no means this Bohemian! On the contrary, rather expect the un-expected, un-usual and an altogether other level of attainment, opposed to anything standard or in any way reprehensive of predictable in any form from me. Now, I don’t know if you have noticed this, but that intricately defining word “dysfunctional”, is mostly tossed over to the fairer gender pool and often (not always though) by the other form of human species, namely men. So gents, this message is specifically for you, Oscar Wilde said, “Woman are meant to be loved, not understood.”
So if you find yourself realising that you have nothing in common with people who take themselves seriously (to the extreme) and should you find you are more often than not referred to as mad, crazy, weird or even dysfunctional, accept that there is nothing (or nothing serious, by ‘our’ standards anyway) wrong with you. Engrave the following quote on your soul and do not be afraid to embrace your own unique weirdness, your quote for the day (being yours forever) is, “No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness” – Aristotle. I have often heard people say, “define normal”, well now you actually can, how utterly unexpected and completely contrary to the answer (if any) that they may have expected.
Well, there you have it in a nutshell… now aren’t you proud to be a fun-filled little lollipop, triple dipped in Psycho? Now go sprinkle that sparkle everywhere and keep people entertained!
Glitter greetings (and all things shiny)
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