Am I crazy and silly, or what!
People all around me in a busy train station, and here I am, on full pipes, belting out:
“We’ll always be together, together in electric dreams”
Actually it’s more “IN E-L-E-CT-R-I-C D-R–E-A–M–S!”, as my neck muscles stretch and strain.
And nobody reacts, or even looks at me funny.
Because they can’t hear me.
I’m on the platform, you see, and the train has pulled up at the terminus, and there’s a massive hiss of air brakes and the roar of the engine as the driver winds it down.
I can’t even hear myself … I could be anybody!
But it still feels a little decadent, mildly daring.
Differentiatingly different.
Crazy and silly.
“Crazy and silly” is a code thing between my sister and I for people who think they are being off the wall, or pushing out the boat, only they’re pretty careful about it.
The kind of people who go “mad” between inverted commas.
Sing out loud when no-one can hear them.
It came from the two fresh-faced Swedish lads my sister met in Scotland many lives ago.
The boys, late teens, as was my sister then, were doing their student backpacking thing, as was she. Lovely, polite, enthusiastic Nordic boys they were.
Lanky … check! … blue-eyed … check! … blond … check!
Anyway the three spent a while together, wherever it was … it could have been Edinburgh.
No matter.
The lads, let’s call them Sven and Ole — I will, anyway — were eager to impress my sis, and the three gabbed away, her in her ironic all-in-the-amused-tone-single-raised-eyebrow Irish way, the lads in their best “Eurotrash” English.
Sven and Ole were enjoying the banter, and then Sven, or Ole, the eyes a little wider, the voice rising, announced:
”We’re crazy … and silly!”
Sorry lads, lovely and shiny and neat and genuine, and altogether bursting with Nordic wholesomeness, my sister reckoned … but crazy?
Silly???
But I still love these little moments, when you break your normal stride and stretch the legs a little on the wild side.
The mildly wild side.
But they still take you both into and out of yourself. Give your individuality a little run-out.
Draw your attention to yourself, making you feel a part of the crowd and apart.
Claiming your individual majesty.
Was it Bertrand Russell who said: “Sanity is a synthesis of insanities”?
Google gives me the full quote:
“Every isolated passion, is, in isolation, insane; sanity may be defined as synthesis of insanities. Every dominant passion generates a dominant fear, the fear of its non-fulfilment. Every dominant fear generates a nightmare, sometimes in form of explicit and conscious fanaticism, sometimes in paralysing timidity, sometimes in an unconscious or subconscious terror which finds expression only in dreams. The man who wishes to preserve sanity in a dangerous world should summon in his own mind a parliament of fears, in which each in turn is voted absurd by all the others.”
You get Bertie’s drift … look a bit closer and we’re all a bit crazy … and, my beating, dangerous heart, silly!
Life does serve up any amount of lovely little off-kilter moments, though.
Just last night I was taking Bella and Lily for their last walk and system evacuation of the day.
It was on the cusp of evening, where you cannot tell if is end of day or beginning of night.
The pair were on their leashes, all tail-wagging shrub-sniffing business.
Kind of proud of themselves, with their fine doggie nostrils that can sniff out enemy pee three miles upwind.
We were walking alongside the wooden fence that frames the farmer’s field just across from our corner house.
Just up the way, I spotted a portly cat stretched out languorously on top of the fence, faded marmalade stripes just discernible against the cobalt sky.
Oh, oh …
The dogs didn’t see him even as they passed right beside him!
One of his front paws did stretch and tense a fraction, and he did trouble to extend his neck downwards a tad to observe the two hounds below.
But he was in no mind to leave his position, or even shift.
His look and demeanour made me think of the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland.
If my two mutts did see him, and snarled into action, he might have maybe disappeared, leaving just his mischievous grin floating in the moonlit air, or tossed off a languid put-down.
Our dogged detectives carried on, though, oblivious to Canine Enemy Number One lurking in plain sight above them.
Off-kilter can take many forms.
Like the delicacy of that flower petal snubbed incongruously against the pavement, like an upturned ice-cream, or maybe parasol, which I just had to photograph.
A diamond on the trail of the unexpected.
Thinking about it all now, I just close my eyes …
I close my eyes (Love never ends)
We’ll always be together
However far it seems (Love never ends) We’ll always be together
Together in electric dreams
My Word of the Week (#WotW) is “Silly”
- Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed it, try another one! Follow my blog and you won’t miss out again.
EndaStories 
This brought back happy memories of youth, hearing this song which was a hit when I was a carefree teenager#twinklytuesday@_karendennis
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As we all were … once upon a time, Karen!
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Great post, Enda. Yep, I love those little moments too.
That flower capture is so lovely.
Thanks to you, I now can’t get that song out of my head! 𝅘𝅥𝅲 ♫♪♪𝄞
#GlobalBlogging
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Hi Veronica … I reckon they secretly keep us sane, these little insanities!!
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I live for those off-kilter moments, like the time earlier this summer when I found $1.89, all in small change, in the middle of an intersection when I was running. How did it get there? Did someone empty their pockets? Fall of the top of a car roof? Pennies from heaven?
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Little change there, Laurie!
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Great tune and great post. I do wonder what the cat’s thoughts were as you and your two dogs passed by.
#BloggerClubUK
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Well … If cats could laugh …
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You’ve created a marvellous image of you standing in that station, Enda. Did you notice people giving you a wide berth, though? Just a thought! In my experience, anyone who tells you any characteristic they think they possess is probably mistaken, at best, or probably deluded – a bit like politicians when they say they’re being honest 😉
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Maybe they did!!🤒😀
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And there I am, back in 1984? with a mild crush on Phil Oaky, no kids, no worries, just lots and lots of ‘silly’ or even crazy moments. Thanks for taking me back and for putting that song in my head that will no doubt pester me all day. I love the image of the Chesire cat. Cat’s can be very territorial, so maybe it was his (or her’s) fence and no dog was going to change that. I love the photo too, so delicate.
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Thanks Anne … I don’t think the cat actually even took the two mutts seriously — I think he was thinking: “C’mon then, if you think you’re hard’ …
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Being crazy and silly is the best way to be. It can get you through some difficult times
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I love the cat being so unbothered by the dogs….and the dogs with their ability to sniff out enemy pee didn’t sniff out their feline counterpart!
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Thanks for reading and commenting!
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I love the thought of you belting it out while standing in the train station! I’m a bit more weird than most people I know, so I can say with certainty that if the train hadn’t have covered your noise, you would have been noticed by all. I vote you do it again when the station is quiet! Then write another blog post and tell us how the ride went 😉 Oh, and Lola said that Bella and Lily should not feel bad, cats who don’t run away are the type who beat up dogs on a regular basis – best to leave them in peace. #GlobalBlogging
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Now Heather … Are you trying to set me up for those seriously looking people in white coats to come and take me away to that nice institution? 😀I also agree about that cat .. he was not worried about Statler and Waldorf. He was more thinking of the inconvenience of having to get off his butt to sort out my pair …
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If men in white jackets show up, run as fast as you can!
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You think I shouldn’t sing some more for them … No?
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Good on your for having a moment and singing in full voice at the station. Fab song choice!
Well done that cat for staying put. What a brave thing x
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Brilliant. Perfect singing moment. Glad you caught it. I love noticing the little details that are out of place. Makes life a tad more interesting. Once you start, it’s hard to stop. Most cats flee from us on our walks, so a cat sitting it out is something I’ve never seen. Although we did have one fly through a bush and attack one of our hounds. She did not see it coming. Full on claws and fur. Then the cat evaporated. She was a gentle dog and was completely stunned by the attack, but never forgave that bush. #wotw
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Haha … Love that not forgiving the bush!!😀
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Gotta love a silly moment, I wonder if anyone actually heard over the train?! #twinklytuesday
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I have that song in my head now! It’s good to be silly and crazy at times. Sophie and I have been frequently bursting into song when out and about recently (got to get the practice in for the show – that’s my excuse!) and I love it. Love the image of the cat on top of the fence being like the Cheshire cat. I can just picture the scene 🙂 #WotW
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Hello Enda! Delighted, now school holidays have finished, to have the time to comment on people’s blogs again! Anyway, I wasn’t sure what to expect from your off-kilter moment but that was seriously off kilter and gloriously so.
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Hi John, Good to hear from you …. hope you are back on kilter after your summer. Kids back in school? Love it!
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Firstly I am not here via a linky but because I want to be. Love your post for multiple reasons. Love that song for starters – the hope for anyone who has loved and lost or in my case and loved and never got the chap in the first place or second place for that matter. Then I love the way you describe your sister’s character and would like to think I have enough of the Irish in me to make me similar and that pleases me. And then I might go off on an electric dream or reverie about blond Swedish men. That quote is going to have me baffled for a while yet – a reminder I am not as bright as I like to think sometimes. I love the word “silly! and yesterday blogged about my right to be so as when that is knocked out me, I think Ii am not myself at all. So thanks as ever for making my day better #nolinky
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It really is a great song, isn’t it! I only remembered the first part of the Russell quote, and Google did the rest! Thank you so much for taking the time to read and comment so delightfully on my blog pieces today … you’ve made my day, Kate!
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