“A Psychopath walks into a room. Can you tell?”

It seems there are endless ways to classify ourselves.

“There are two kinds of people in the world….” You fill in the blank with whatever you fancy: chocolate lovers and chocolate haters, Lakers fans and Kings fans, propane users and charcoal users, etc.

But after 30 some years of observation and introspection, I’m fairly certain that life boils down to the psychopaths and the non psychopaths. And everyone, and I mean everyone, falls somewhere in either of the two categories. In order to explain, I must start at the beginning…

Let’s consider the phrase “Take the bull by the horns”. We feast our minds on images of fearlessly facing challenges.  We picture ourselves post insurmountable odds, proudly staking our flag of accomplishment for all to admire. The saying encourages us to push ahead and test our limits, and yet, unless we are actually eye to eye with the prospect of failure, we are unable to realize what this phrase truly encapsulates.

It is f**ing scary.  No,  it is terrifying- to look failure in the eye. What could possibly possess a person to take on a challenge that requires the use of the phrase “take the bull by the horns”? Would we literally “take a bull by the horns”? Fuck. no.

So then, why would we do something, arguably, equally terrifying? The imagery is meant to cast ourselves as daring dreamers or fighters, but the actual fight often is more violent than we anticipate in our beautifully painted daydreams. (Google images: Run with the Bulls, to get a more graphic idea of what I’m talking about here)

“You’d have to be crazy to do that”

And yet, some people do it. They take the bull by the horns and go for it, win or fail. Does that make them crazy?

What about this idea:

“You gotta just roll with the punches.”

Ah. So harmless, a mite encouraging to just not take things personally, or not linger on any one failure or bad day.

But is it just me, or are we still getting punched? And, last time I checked, getting punched hurts like a mother.

Yeah, sure, I’ll roll with the punches. Nevermind the actual pain, scars and setbacks that I will suffer as a result of getting punched (multiple times; see punches- plural, not singular). I can keep going…

or not.

But some still choose to stay in the ring and get the pulp beat out of them. And I gotta ask, why? How does anyone know that these punches are meant to push in any particular direction; for instance- OUT of the ring ? Would that be so hard to accept? To move out of the way of punches, and avoid a continual and torturous beatdown of your face and/or soul?

“You’d have to be crazy to do that.”

crazy. what kind of crazy, exactly?

Even the mundane “You only live once.” The overused and misused excuse to do anything our heart desires, including being self-serving, but also to generate excitement in face of crazy-ridiculous-fear.

But what about the darker side of “YOLO”? The acknowledgment of mortality? That we, in fact, do only have one life to live, and that our choices or non-choices will mold it and direct into something we relish or hate. This is not so exciting. The fear of making a mistake. The fear missing an opportunity, or taking the wrong turn. Would it be worse to take the wrong opportunity and end up, say- dead? Or to pass up the opportunity, and “never know”, but also live to try other opportunities?

Felix Baumgartner defies fear, death and possibly physical human limitations to jump from a height of 24 miles down to earth, to break the sound barrier.

If I were Felix, I might phone Death and leave this message:

“Death, are you there? It’s me, Felix. pick up. I’m just calling to let you know that I’m penciling in an appointment with you for next week. Let me know if that works for you. if not, no worries.”

But I’m sure Felix’s real message would be something like this:

“Death, what’s up, man? Just calling to check in. Remember Moab, Utah? That was nuts. Hey, anyway, I’m jumping from space next week, so I thought I’d let you know that you can SUCK IT. peace.”

“You’d have to be crazy to do that.”

How crazy?

Turns out, these fearless pioneers, CEOs and other adventurers that take on the physical, mental and social dragons in life might all have that little bit of crazy necessary to do what they do.

I mean, no sane person would willingly do any of these things. There has to be some delusion of granduer, some detachment from reality or lack of sensibility- however momentary (or non-momentary) that allows us to step out of the safety zone and risk it all.

But sometimes risks are necessary. How else would or could we alter our reality were it not for that risk? Would it be that we risk our sanity if we forgo the effort? How else could we “make our dreams reality” if we didn’t straddle that no-man’s land, somewhere between dreams and dawn? To have one foot in the “not yet” and the other, firmly planted in the path of pain, does indeed sound psychotic, but also so very necessary. By doing so, and by failures and successes, we force those dreams into the dawn, and share the exciting transformation that they bring into our lives.

The sad truth is, most who can persist through the pain are often not fully recognized for their achievement, their bravery or their pioneering that led to later achievement until they are gone. They are laughed at, ridiculed, told “no” a thousand times, and told that yes, they are crazy, and to just give it up. But they choose not to, and endure humiliation and rejection instead.

Their bodies are in the present, but their minds are elsewhere- seeing and doing things that no one else can see or do-

that definitely sounds like psychosis. doesn’t it?