I Want Crazy, I Need Crazy

What is crazy? Not madness, but perhaps something irrational or unexpected. Author Susanna Kaysen writes, "Crazy isn’t being broken or swallowing a dark secret. It’s you or me amplified." I would add that crazy is our true selves. It's what happens when we stop caring about what other people think.

The same idea applies to relationships. The element of surprise is often what attracts people to each other. As Hunter Hayes sings in I Want Crazy, "I wanna be scared, don't wanna know why/I wanna feel good, don't have to be right." Truth is, we like not being in control.

Have you ever found yourself so deeply entrenched in routine that you don't know what to do with yourself once that routine is gone? Happens to me. Like a bird so used to its cage that it won't fly away when the door is finally opened, I find it hard to break the norm even when it seems logical to do so.

We don't just want crazy, we need crazy. Life's worries can burn us out to the point that we stop caring.  In those moments, we need something random to snap us back. Whether that's a party, a midnight drive, or even a good cry, we feel better when we cycle out of the ordinary.

But that's not the only reason we need crazy. Sometimes, we realize YOLO is for real. We slip out of our busy schedules for a second and see how badly we'll someday regret living a boring life. Like a midlife crisis that can happen at any time. "I don't want good and I don't want good enough," sings Hayes. "I want can't sleep, can't breathe without your love." We want to stand out. We want to be remembered. We want to have fun.

And ultimately, we really are crazy. Even the shyest introvert has an outgoing, risk-taking side. The traits that set us apart make us people. "The world makes all kinds of rules for love/I say you gotta let it do what it does," sings Hayes. So maybe it's time to take I Want Crazy literally and let our real selves shine through a little brighter.

Video courtesy of hunterhayes.