It's a Madhouse!

Funny, but I can't help but visualize Charlton Heston's character, in the original Planet of the Apes, shouting that line, early in the movie. I find myself feeling an extreme empathy for his character, lately, as I walk on this "planet of the hairless apes" for my seventh decade. I guess I could as easily call this planet a zoo, and probably will use that metaphor in this post, as well.

These days, I'm becoming more and more an observer and less one who attempts to proselytize, as I did in my younger days. It seems that things are rolling along nicely (well, not really nicely, but certainly determinedly) without my intervention. But, here we jolly well are, aren't we?

It does seem a little dangerous to me, though. There are no bars, like in a true nuthouse or zoo, and some of the inmates/animals can be quite dangerous. I am not so intimidated by the thought of Death, so much as by the thought of Pain, which I normally avoid. I read somewhere that Survival is the first internal "cellular command" of the species, which I can agree with, but pain-avoidance is, in my considered opinion, probably the first autonomic action/reaction of humankind. So, as I walk by the non-cages, I most often do so with trepidation.

What got me to finally sit down and add to this blog, was my considering that friends and family are, one-by-one, going completely mad. Sadly, Religion (in the form of Evangelical Christianity) is at the root of the insanity. People can go quite literally mad, when you say something that might threaten to jerk the "security-blanket" or what-have-you from their grasp. And this I have been observing. I actually have been known to call myself a Deist to avoid the inevitable heated conversations that can ensue when one is undecided and leaning toward Atheism. Dawkins has said it takes great courage to say one is an Atheist. To that I say Amen! (irony intended)

I have found that for me, kid gloves and even out-an-out lying are not worth the trouble. Most of these crazies are looking for you to know the secret handshake. Knowing all the thousands of handshakes, and remembering which one goes with which crazy-person, is pretty much impossible. So, one is left to be honest and brace oneself against the inevitable, I suppose.

I have often wondered, "Will someone who claims to love me, end up being the one who kills me?" Hell, it's happened before, on this planet. I guess I'll find out sooner or later.

dq