Going Poe

Madness vs. Intelligence

"Men have called me mad; but the question is not yet settled, whether madness is or is not the loftiest intelligence– whether much that is glorious– whether all that is profound– does not spring from disease of thought– from moods of mind exalted at the expense of the general intellect."

- from "Eleonora"

Poe in many ways had it right, right down to how he lived his life and how he was viewed by others.  The over analytical mind tends to travel to dark places.  To incessantly pick and pick at things and break them down into their key components one sees all the flaws in them which is great when investigating a crime or troubleshooting a problem but not when one is trying to sleep at night.  To have an analytical mind is to feel pain when that power of perception turns on its owner eating away at them and their own actions in life.  This double edge sword making them brilliant but yet prone to depression and as others see it madness.  The very thing that gives the individual strength also limits and shackles their potential in this world.  

I have for a majority of my life travelled from alternating depths of depression and back again; walking on the very edge of the ice of sanity until it cracks.  The only respite being when I can find something to distract my mind and its analysis from me and on to something else.  This is why I turned to writing and constructing highly constructed and complex worlds in my head to busy a relentless mind.  Now I find myself trying to find ways to motivate this mind to do the work of writing these stories so it can do me some good but with the stories completed in my mind it finds no reason to focus on puzzles already pieced together.  Here’s to hoping I can find more ways to keep focused on my writing so it can pay dividends in my life.