The human brain defines the human, yet it perpetually
teeters on the edge of delirium. The factors are multiple - environment,
circumstances, personal choice, or a dip (could be planned, could be
accidental) in a yucky gene pool. While the fact that the brain is the essence of
our existence and yet so fragile is quite disturbing, it's a lot more appalling
to think that destroying a part of the brain via lobotomy and permanently
altering the person was acceptable practice in the 40s and 50s.
The Urdu word for human being is insaan, for humanity is insaniyat.
Attach an e and take away an a, and we have insane and insanity.
How's that for teetering? There is a very fine line that separates man from mad
(actually just one letter, come to think of it). Dementia is just a slip away
from our dimension into a self-built alternate reality and ironically, the people
who start wandering that personal alternate reality can be called 'no'mad. If
enough personal alternate realities found common ground and a way to cross over
and share, the loons shall inherit the earth.
Cracks in our psychological and emotional veneer manifest as
quirks and idiosyncracies. If we don't figure out how to fill those cracks,
they start propagating and become psychoses, neuroses and eventually full-blown
dementia (there's physical/genetic factors to initiate/accelerate the process,
of course). With every passing year we lose flexibility and become more
brittle, and these cracks start smoking more crack, ready to mislead us to
shattering conclusions. Being malleable is tough in this rapidly changing world,
but of extreme necessity.
So what did the loon get from the moon? Apparently you can
go mad if the moon shone on you while you were asleep, or maybe just with the phase
changes of the moon. If the moon can have such a strong effect from a distance,
did Neil Armstrong experience heightened lunacy in the lunar sea when he landed
on the moon?
Interestingly, the non-human world is a lot crazier - that
is why the cuckoo went cuckoo, the nut bolted, the banana slipped/lost a peel/went
bananas, kangaroos went hopping mad, chimpanzees went ape, the pressure cooker blew
a gasket, the golf ball became de'range'd, the pistol went ballistic, and Willly
went wonka! Most of the exciting figures of speech are about negative scenarios
- positivity is boring I guess.
There is no dark
slide of the loon. Matter of fact, it's all spark. A bright, cheery ascent to a
chocolate factory. Willy can attest to that after he is done ordering the Oompa Loompas around.
