The Building Blocks of Goin' Bonkers

Listen up people! I'm just going type it, so you can read it out loud and hear it firsthand ... if you’re really listening. There are times when going crazy is necessary. We are talking a non-violent, non-contact, rubber room romp, where not a single carbon-based life form, plant or insect is harmed in the making of the phantasm. Not the same as macing people so they do not cart off the sale items you want, before you can. 

It is the, believe it or not, most rational posture that can be used at certain times to make a point. And I'm not talking about becoming charmingly eccentric. Most Long Islanders seem already have that part down pat. But I'm talking about purposely emigrating to the Looney Land for a brief span of time. That unique psychological postal code where the historic laws of "behave yourself" or "watch your mouth" are no longer in effect.

And if it is unique, like a flowering orchid, then it can have an eclipse like result. And that goes for booing your own hometown sports hero for not performing as the millions they are getting paid would deserve, or pulling a "Jersey Shore Situation" and putting your head into a wall to avoid getting beat up by a bigger foe, when you know you are wrong, can and will diffuse the situation quickly.

My thoughts on this subject, through years of advanced scientific testing and careful observations, is simple: it takes an immense amount of effort to sustain a blended, down to Earth, level-headed, even-keeled persona every single year, day in and day out. And most people do just that for years and years and years. Calm like a palm tree.

However, abstaining from that Herculean effort involves, from a Freudian prose, a conscious dismantling and planned execution of the frontal lobed ego and cultural teachings since birth. Going off-kilter can take definite planning.

Which is that part of the psyche encrusted and entrusted with enforcing any and all socially approved actions based on your GPS coordinates (What is a complimentary burp in one village, is an insult in another). While the need and allure of going full out, cheese-n-crackers, nutsy cuckoo for a span time comparable to that of cooking a TV Dinner, is a main cog in the mechanism that allows mankind and womankind to grow, develop, experiment and invent.

The constant energy required to pass as normal suddenly becomes available for acting silly and saying whatever pleases a person in that exact moment. It allows grown adults to dress up for a Twilight movie premiere or ask for Tigger's autograph at Walt Disney World. No harm, no foul.

Imagine it. No oral filter between the brain and mouth so long as it is not hurtful. To let out the things that are held in the deepest chasms of our sarcastic cortices when asked things like, "Does this make my behind look fat?" or "How many times have I asked you not to do that?" It is the thing that would allow us to sing Christmas carols in the elevator at the top of our lungs like a karaoke champ and not be embarrassed.

Freud’s psyche model parts -- the super ego and libido -- utterly and completely unbound by any and all moral or cultural restrictions would be left unchecked. There would be no lid on the id, so to speak -- which is where we get good comedy from, actually -- but also on precious moments like my mom dancing the foxtrot with a much younger me as we stood on the bank line, waiting for a teller. History tells us it is where the Loch Ness Tickle Monster originated from too.

Understand that we are talking mental missions where no one is touched or harmed physically, emotionally or orally. It is the one that allows an individual to create art, compose music, imagine new worlds, invent new technologies and see religious icons in Eggo waffles. Unharnessed, it allows theories to become realities and for the questionings of rules and diversity of laws and their expansion. It is also when a normally rational person gets so fed up that they explode in a written or oral tirade of volcanic proportions that can put things into proper perspective, if the other people or person emotes an ounce of empathy.

It should be more of a Lady Gaga thing than a Britney Spears thing, if you think about it. Don't shave your head and take a bat to your car so people know you're pissed beyond belief, but you can shave your head and wear a meat encrusted t-shirt that says that you're pissed beyond belief! But either act will gain the proper attention and sensitivity, if you think about it.

Remember that I am not endorsing or recommending this cause of action, only explaining it. A one-time movement is more than less. It is what makes the action the infinite reaction. A protest worthy of noting.

The point is, that every once in a while humans need to vent in order to stay productive and to get back to their regular life. But it is only beneficial if it is a rare and brief occurrence. Too many Chef Ramseys spoil the Flaming Baked Alaska, but if after years of calm and cool marriage you get up at 3 a.m. and stand on the bed and scream at the top of your lungs, "The heck with your new Electrolux, I want a 50-inch plasma tomorrow!" that will get the noticeable attention you want, because you have never expressed it that way ever before.

It helps others know that you have stepped where you should not have, but not invaded personal space that is their “No Fly Zone” to be proper and not get adverse reactions, non-sympathetic looks or arrested as a result. So the rare freak out can let others know your innermost, pent up desires. Otherwise, if you blather, whine, kvetch and throw tantrums too often, someone is bound to start calling you "Kanye West."