Musing on Madness

I’m watching four squirrels chasing each other. They’re sure-footed, purposeful, amusing. I’m not sure of they are cross with each other, playing together or just bonkers. Normal animal behaviour seen through human eyes and interpreted as madness…

Last year we watched ‘Hamilton’. The story of Alexander Hamilton, one of the ‘Founding Fathers’ of the United States includes ‘Mad King George’, presented as a buffoon, a clown, a powerless fool…

Historians tell of George III as devoted to his loving wife, Queen Charlotte, a wise, fair and popular king. Far from the ‘mad monarch’, he was an enlightened and forward-thinking king who supported the arts and sciences.

At times his memory failed, and his behaviour was erratic; he lived in solitary confinement and was treated by doctors. Many think that ‘mad’ George suffered with a severe bipolar disorder and later with dementia. This wasn’t a foolish clown or an insane madman, but a man with a mental illness.

As a child in Sunday School I was taught about the madman Legion. Uncontrolled an uncontrollable he lived in the tombs away from normal people. My creative young mind had a clear picture of a naked man, with broken chains round his ankles and wrists, running round a graveyard.

His ‘mad’ condition was attributed to demonic presence. Jesus comes, accepts him as he is, talks to him, casts out the demons, and he’s left ‘clothed and in his right mind’.

Mad musings this morning…

…When we call politicians, celebrities, family members ‘mad’, are we referring to their spiritual condition, mental health, or squirrel-like behaviour?

…Reading about St Anthony the Great, another ‘Founding Father’ – of the Desert Fathers… the ‘Father of All Monks’ who said: ‘A time is coming when men will go mad, and when they see someone who is not mad, they will attack him, saying, “You are mad; you are not like us.”’

…St Paul’s antidote to madness: ‘Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…’