I Love Crazy

[Anna] “Can I say something crazy?”

[Hans] “I love crazy.” 

Listen: “Love is an Open Door”

In the new Disney movie Frozen, this exchange occurs between Anna and Hans at the start of the song, “Love is an Open Door.”  And I love it!

I love crazy too especially the way Hans says it in Frozen.

By the way, you probably didn’t know this but Hans was really under the Imperius Curse when he told Anna she was so gullible and acted as if he were the villain.  The real villain was the guy from Weasleton and he hypnotized Hans kinda like Jafar hypnotized Jasmin’s dad in Aladdin.  It was like Hans was brainwashed by the Sith Lord in Star Wars because there was no Obi-wan/Yoda around to cleanse his mind appropriately.  Our Obi-wan/Yoda character was on his way but the stay-puff-marshmallow-abominable snow man got a hold of him and was holding him captive in Elsa’s ice castle. 

Hans is really a good guy and the one Anna is going to marry.  Christoph is going to marry Elsa because he loves the snow and ice; subsequently he has real appreciation for her ice sculptures.  He joins with Anna in helping Elsa balance her powers of heat and ice.  His love warms her lonely heart and together they end up being fair and compassionate monarchs for Arendelle.  Anna and Hans eventually move away to build another kingdom close by.  Over the years, their borders begin to merge and lots of stories of their progenitors unfold.

Don’t you think that’s totally crazy?

But it’s a true story because, “Our mental synchro-ni-zation can have but one explanation.  You and I were just meant to be!”

Crazy cannot exist unless there is first a standard or a law to go crazy from. 

I have a daily schedule.  It's my personal law.  Every Sunday I have what I call a Commitment Meeting with my Cause when we review my general daily schedule.  We go over the past week.  It pretty much stays the same from week to week but sometimes we tweak it.  I report on the commitments I kept and the times when I kinda went crazy.  We decide which commitments don’t change at all for the next week.  I just need to keep on trying to keep them.  And then we talk about what needs to change.  Sometimes I make commitments that are so lofty that I can never actually keep them.  I write this all down so I remember.  Writing it is the first step to keeping it. 

Every morning I have a mini Commitment Meeting with my Cause.  We scan over the Sunday meeting so I remember what I said I would do.  Then we plan the day specifically.  I brainstorm all the things I have to get done and organize them into the general categories that I always have:

Then I insert my commitments into time slots.

I use this as my template to plan each day.  I know what I need to be working on and when.  It’s like I’m in college or I have a job.  Each of these commitments are another class or assignment I need to fulfill.  I take them seriously.  But sometimes I’m crazy.   Instead of exercising from 8-9am I work on the Servant Program!  That’s nuts, huh?  Sometimes I skip my shower.  Sometimes I sleep in until 5:24am.  Matthew gets ready so fast for 6am seminary and I am getting so quick at throwing his and Laura’s lunches together.  And I really get crazy on weekends, no school days, holidays, and vacations.  We do different things then but I still need to start out my day with a plan or it usually doesn't end up being productive at all.

If I didn’t have this schedule, crazy would have no meaning.  Or if I was crazy all the time, crazy itself would be my schedule and keeping a regular schedule would be the crazy thing for me to do. 

Standard Deviation

It’s all in the perspective.  Crazy is a deviation from our regular habits.  And I think it’s good to be crazy once in a while.  But if we don’t create regular habits we won’t feel how fun it is to get a little crazy here and there.

I have realized that I control the way I feel by the way I keep my commitments.  When I hold my schedule up like a race, an obstacle course, a set of goals I want to reach for the day, my blood starts pumping.  I feel challenged and energized.  And I love that feeling! When I take a crazy break I feel comforted, relaxed.  And I like that feeling too.  But for me, even the slightest degree of OVER-relaxation begins to make me feel uncomfortable.  I have to feel that challenge, that energy or I begin to feel like my life is meaningless.  Thus balancing my commitment keeping with my crazy is crucial to obtaining the daily Joy I experience.

But crazy can also get out of hand.  It’s people that blow up buildings, hijack planes, and shoot innocent people who are taking the standard deviation to an all time wider width than is good for themselves or a society.  This is when crazy isn’t so fun and no one loves it. 

Some people have a more difficult time keeping commitments, boundaries, or a personal set of rules in order to feel that sense of well being and security.  So instead they live in a heightened state of fear, vulnerability, and insecurity.

So when does the good kind of crazy cross the boundaries into the bad kind of crazy for you?

The following quote sums up why we can have the good kind of crazy days.  And why we can get back from the bad kind of crazy days:

Listen:  "Emanuel" by Amy Grant