Let's Go Crazy

For my job, I do peer support and advocacy on inpatient psych units. Some days it is heartbreaking and exhausting. And some days I feel like I have been allowed into a sacred, mystical space full of magical beings. Not to romanticize extreme states or crises. But some people do experience these times as spiritual or intellectual awakenings, a break from consensus reality that is an opportunity to see into alternative spaces.

My visit yesterday was one of the times when I feel honored to share or just witness the beauty and resiliency of people coping with being in a difficult place. In particular, this one old dude was just soliloquizing nonstop at whoever would listen. For a moment the room got quiet, and he gestured toward one of the strange, heavy lumps of furniture that make up the seating options. He said:

The chair is full of sand
The sand is full of stars
The stars are full of the sea
The safest place is here next to me

Internally (which is where I do most of my crying), I was weeping with joy in this moment. Later he also said, "How long does it take to build the world?"

Historically, crazy is a pejorative label that has been used to discredit and oppress people. It's also been reclaimed by mad communities who are redefining these experiences in our own terms and pushing back against being medicalized and institutionalized.

It is in that spirit that I offer you today's pop song. Prince is notoriously protective of his work, so I can't embed an online clip of his 1984 release "Let's Go Crazy" from the Purple Rain soundtrack. You will have to figure out how to hear this song if it's not already so familiar you can just call it up in the jukebox of your brain.

Because seriously, "we are gathered here today to get through this thing called life ... and if the elevator tries to bring you down, go crazy, punch a higher floor."