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Which one should we choose, irreversible madness or constant preaching?

Francisco Miraval

In his well-known book The Song of the Bird, Anthony De Mello shares two wonderfully told stories, one about irreversible craziness and another one about constant preaching. There is no connection between the two stories, except that one feels when reading them or remembering them that sooner or later one will be forced to choose either craziness or preaching.

Out of respect to De Mello, I will not even attempt to present those stories, not even in a shorter form. It will be enough to say that both stories deal with people who, when faced with the reality of the society they belong to, they must decide if they will accept such “craziness” or if they will try to avoid it by “preaching.”

When De Mello talks about craziness he is not talking about losing one’s mind to the point one needs to be sent to a mental hospital to be treated. Quite the opposite, he is talking about the craziness of normal life, that is, the craziness of everyday life, when you always do the same thing and everybody shares the same thoughts, never challenging them.

If a person doesn’t share that craziness, then that person will be excluded from society and society will declare that person “crazy”, probably trying to educate that person, or even send him/her some place to be treated. If that doesn’t work, there are always more severe actions to be taken.

The craziness of the everyday routine, of amusing ourselves to death (as Neil Postman once wrote) leads to forgetting about oneself, De Mello seems to suggest. One forgets about one’s past, beliefs, hopes, and ideas. After drinking from the elixir of social craziness, one forgets everything about oneself, but it is rewarded by being accepted in society by those who previously rejected that person.

But what if you want to keep your self (two words) and you don’t want to forget who you are? Then, according to De Mello, you should be preaching constantly. This is not a religious preaching to present a doctrine hoping to gain new converts.

It is, so to speak, self-preaching when you repeat to your self (two words) day after day what you believe and hope, because you want to remember it and you don’t want to forget it. This “preaching” is not an invitation to remain trapped in the past or to be obsessed with your own ideas. It is a conscious effort to remember your past and your ideas.

Properly practiced, self-preaching can help you to remain being yourself when, at the same time, you face all the normal transformations of human life. Yet, you will always be at risk of becoming a “crazy anti-social” person. You will probably be treated as people usually treat the street preachers you see in many cities: laughing and ignoring them.

So, which option should we choose, the irreversible craziness that leads to being accepted by society or the protection of the eternal isolation of self-preaching? I simply don’t know.

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