Yesterday my friend Jack said that he identified with the Muppet Gonzo… in particular Gonzo’s ‘feat of lunatic daring’. We talked our feats of lunatic daring…
…then our mutual friend Roger, who’s become a wrestler. He’s takes his wrestling seriously. There’s regular training and practicing with a local group of wrestlers. Jack had been to see one of their shows. Good guys and bad guys, audience participation, physical theatre… It sounded like aggressive pantomime.
Roger He’s taken on the persona of Brutus, developing a fictional backstory… he used to be a monk… fell from faith… became a street brawler… then a wrestler.
We wondered about Roger’s lunatic daring.
Today is the birthday of John Kellogg – born on 26th February 1852 – who’s best known for inventing Corn Flakes (and perhaps peanut butter)…
Involved with revivalist Baptists and Congregationalists, Kellogg eventually became a Seventh-Day Adventist. His faith was too liberal for the more conservative Christians and he was ‘disfellowshipped’ from his church…
He held clear views on healthy living. As the chief medical officer of the Battle Creek Sanitarium, Michigan, he promoted an abstinence from meat, alcohol, tobacco and sex… many practices that then were daring…
…but yoghurt enemas, his promotion of segregation, his unconventional reconciliation of theology and medicine… many thought of him as lunatic…
Last night a few of us discussed Jesus’ words: ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.’ Is that lunatic daring?
This morning I read about Samson… killing a lion with his bare hands… tying foxes together by their tails and setting fire to them… killing a thousand men with a donkey’s jawbone… unconventional relationships with women… Lunatic daring!
I’m getting too old for Roger’s… John Kellog’s… Samson’s energetic lunatic daring. I prefer St Paul’s: ‘Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.’
…but perhaps living by such ideals is lunatic daring.
malcolmsmusings.org 
What a great post – love the corralation of the lunatiuc daring with faith. And the building of the community jack told me about in your discussion. Theres a great film with Anthony Hopkins in on Kellog – thanks Malcolm, you sweet lunatic darer xxx
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Good to hear from you, John. I shall look up the film. Kellogg certainly seems to have been an interesting man!
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I’m with you, I will go with St. Paul’s lunatic daring! I always enjoy how you connect things, Malcolm.
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To me, Dana, it seems a bit like Jesus’ ‘Blessed are the meek’. At first it seems weak; then it seems outrageously daring and strong.
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So true!
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May we all subscribe to and practice true lunatic daring!! ~Ed.
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I’m increasingly persuaded, Ed, that Jesus calls his followers to a life of apparent lunatic daring.
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Me too, Malcolm. I’m past the lunatic daring and seek that peace that exceeds all understanding, now and forever.
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It seems to me, Grant, that Jesus’ teaching, developed further by Paul, promised that the road to love, joy and peace, comes through lunatic daring… but perhaps mine is not so energetic, or as Gonzo-crazy, as in years gone by.
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Well said, Malcolm, and I agree. Thanks for the clarification.
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Well said!!
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Thanks, Allan. Go well.
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Kellogg’s background information was intriguing and Gonzo’s motorcycle act was hilarious. Nice balance of wackiness tempered with St Paul’s common sense. 🙂
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Perhaps wackiness and common sense, balanced by God’s grace, is what life’s all about, Nancy!
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