Today, while helping someone create their character for a game, I came across something utterly unnatural yet completely understandable. He came up with this crazy idea that was so weird and different that it would actually be really cool and fun.
Let me back up. For those of you who don't know, I am the president of a club called "The Dungeon Dwellers" where friends gather weekly to play Dungeons and Dragons. It's a game where creativity is encouraged, strategy and cooperation are key, and imagination is necessary.
In the game, you get the opportunity to create your own unique character. This character can range from something simple, such as an elf with a bow, to the most complicated, such as a half-elf whose parents died in a tragic fire and the only thing that survived was a mysterious egg that may or may not have a dragon inside, to the weirdest, such as a ninja turtle with rainbow hair and a talking pet mouse.
However, this person's character was different. It was crazy. Akin to its creator, Roamin, the name it was given, is a dwarf with a drinking problem on the outside, but underneath you discover something interesting. While Roamin is drunk over the last mead he had, he turns into this wild fighting machine with very little intelligence but somehow randomly says the most genius of things. In contrast, when Roamin is drunk, he turns into this prim and proper know-it-all that is terrible at fighting.
I'm telling you, I could not make this up. This is the work of a friend of mine. He is as crazy as the idea for his character. This point is driven home by the fact that I had to change the sheet where the characters notes were taken, something that in normal circumstances shouldn't be messed with.
Do you understand the point I'm trying to make? Crazy isn't bad. Crazy is just a different outlook on life. Granted, it may be a bit darker or more askew than most, but it's nonetheless real. Look at many of the geniuses of history at some point. Most of them were considered crazy until someone took their idea on and found it to be correct, or at least interesting.
Look at Copernicus. Everyone believed that the Earth was the center of the solar system until he came along and most people thought he was crazy. Even most famous poets don't become legendary until after they die. The point is just because you think it's crazy doesn't make it a bad thing; it could be the potential for genius.
