Allow Yourself To Be Crazy
This weekend we’re going to do something kind of nuts. My sweet wife Holly and I are going to drive up into the mountains (again) on a mission to see a house that I have fallen in love with.
It’s gorgeous, and is honestly the first house that has ever spoken to me in quite this way. Looking at it online takes my breath away, and makes me feel like this is the house that I would honestly love to call my home.
And yes, it’s a little bit expensive.
Ok, full disclosure, it’s insanely expensive, and right now there’s no obvious way that we could ever afford it without a wild change of life. To add to the reality check, it’s kind of off road, and there is snow in the mountains and this house is kind of off the beaten path, so there’s a significant possibility that we could get stuck in the snow. It could even be in a gated community, so we might not even be able to get to it.
Do I care – not really.
I totally realize that some people will look at this as a waste of time and money. Why drive so far, in bad conditions, on the chance that we could drive by a house that we might not ever be able to own, to get stuck in the snow. Sure, when you put it like that, it sounds ridiculous, and yet to me it makes every sense in the world to go there and give ourselves the chance to dream.
Maybe I’m crazy, but I don’t care.
Because I need to have a dream, and a crazy expectation for myself, or the world would become a very dull place. I know the improbable can happen, because I’m living it. I’ve come so much further than my background would ever have suggested.
If you look at the statistics of my birth, my family and my high school record, you would understand that I am living a life so very different than anyone could have imagined.
So I choose to dream, and believe that the impossible is waiting for me.
But not only for me, but for you as well. I believe that most people have genius and madness inside of them, but they hide it away, afraid of the censure of the world and the people who will think ill of them.
I reject this notion. I choose to believe in you, and in your greatness, your humanity, your kindness, and your nobility. I choose to believe that we all have the capacity to change the world.
But what if I’m wrong?
Well, it will have been a better life than sitting quietly. Maybe I’ll have tried, and crashed and burned spectacularly. Maybe they’ll all laugh, and use me as an example to their children of what not to be, how not to live. If that is how this ends up, then SO BE IT.
I’ll stick with crazy, and be happy. Come along for the ride.
— Dr. Alan Barnes
@maddrbmusings