“There are many people in the country today, who through no fault of their own, are sane. Some of them were born sane, others became sane later in life. It is up to people like you and me, who are out of our tiny little minds, to help these people overcome their sanity.”
-Reverend J. Arthur Belling (Monty Python’s Flying Circus).
Oxford English dictionary defines insane (adj) as:
“in a state of mind which prevents normal perception, behavior, or social interaction, seriously mentally ill.”
By that definition, we should all be a bit more insane.
Look around at our society. “normal perception, behavior, and social interaction” include:
Mindless consumption, forcing us to live at the edge of our resources.
Borrowing money to pay for things we don’t need so that we can pay more money than said things are worth over time.
Mindlessly consuming tons of horrible food, creating disease in the process.
Not exercising and lying to ourselves and others about not having time to exercise.
Exercising by doing endless, boring reps in a fluorescent, stinky room.
Consuming TWO-THIRDS of the world’s stash of antidepressants.
Commuting absurd distances to work in wheeled anxiety pressure-cookers that we’ve borrowed money to pay for (may the commute stay dead).
Identifying as “bad with money.” (You’ve been taught to be “bad with money” from the day your eyes first saw an ad for an awesome toy on TV).
This is sanity. Normal behavior and social interaction. The personification of the perfect American consumer. But it doesn’t have to be you! You can fight back.
Join me in the pit of insanity!
Over the course of my adult life, I’ve gone insane.
I’ve been able to save for months-long international backpacking trips and graduate college without the burden of student debt.
I did this living in a series of apartments, not in my parents’ basement. I worked as a server, bartender, and teacher. I don’t have a trust fund, a mysterious dead rich uncle, or winning lottery tickets.
This is not a bootstrapping article, by the way. I wouldn’t consider myself “successful” by any traditional monetary definition. Most of my trips and experiences in the last 7 years have been very dirt-bag-ish (hostels, tents, vans, etc).
I measure my success by the size of my comfort zone and my ability to live life on my terms, not by my bank balance.
“Life is not a marathon, it’s a trail run. And what’s crazy is that all these people are out here running on this track to beat each other, when all the gold is way over here on this mountain, and you just walk over and get it!”
-Terry Crews
In the last six months, I’ve quit my job, moved to Central America, become a digital nomad, been certified to teach yoga and aerial yoga, taken aerial silks classes and learned all I can about acroyoga.
Lock me up, I’m flippin’ crazy!
I’m not alone
What do digital nomadicy, van life, the tiny house movement, off-grid living, and re-wilding have in common?
They’re all, by the metrics of our society, thoroughly insane. And they’re within the reach of anyone who’s able to save a little bit of money. They don’t require huge financial commitments, like a mortgage or a car loan.
I cannot tell you how much I love being a millennial, first and foremost because I love myself and I have no say in what category I was born into.
The biggest reason I love my category and my generation is that we’re insane. Every time I hop on Instagram, I see van-lifers, digital nomad photographers, homesteaders, and generally badass people making life work outside of the system.
And why? Because that which came before us was hot garbage. We watched our parent's generation work their lives away and rack up the highest divorce rates in history.
We watched the people around us lose their minds in hustle culture.
We looked at the wild places of the world, then at the rat race, and said “no thanks, we’re out. Good luck.”
A filter for decision-making
The next time you’re up against a big life decision, ask yourself:
“What would this look like if I dealt with it in the most insane way possible?”
It may work, it may not. But I promise it’ll produce more interesting results than just following along with the fountain of nightmares that our society has become.
I hope that next time you have to decide what to do with your life, you move to a cabin in the woods and start making badass jewelry for hedgehogs.
You know, if that’s what you want.
GO INSANE!
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Insanity Is Now My Favorite Solution