To the casual observer, I’m probably just a shy kid, who always has his phone in his hands, or his headphones plugged into his ears as he walks—as my friend describes it—like a peacock, head in the air, synchronised steps and seeming to have not a care in the world.
Not true though. I have all the cares in the world and I have to listen to music to calm my brain down or else it will explode. The constant music in my ears explains my synchronised steps.
It is hard to explain but I always have alternative thoughts to every topic. Even when something appears to be cut and dried, my mind goes off on a tangent. I always factor in the what-ifs and the maybes. It really is hard to keep up in my head with so many ideas, stories and songs that play over and over all swirling together in this creative web of imagination. I have both logical and irrational thoughts on practically every subject under the sun and often these thoughts come out in social conversations. Call it crazy—it’s just me.
Crazy is exactly how a friend describes what goes on in my head; and this was basically our first conversation following on from a rather peculiar topic of men giving birth.
Being a past reporter at Stabroek News, and former writer in The Scene, my friend, Lakhram Trevor Bhagirat would know what crazy is, since I can tell you we have some crazy people here. But then he said the world lacks crazy people. After some thought, I chose to disagree. I believe that we are all crazy in our own way; some of us manifest it, some of us repress it. But there is also a distinction: Craziness with intelligence and passion is innovative, but craziness with laziness and no ambition is just wasteful. Trevor agreed.
I believe the world lacks innovative people; the ones who would take their crazy and turn it into creativity. People are too routine, which stifles creativity. Technology has done this, no doubt with video games and televisions knocking out the great making up of games and outdoor fun. In the adult world, we depend on it too much and use technology as a quick servant rather than a partner to be better extensions of our own minds and capabilities.
As my friend noted, passion and creativity are quickly diminishing among the younger generation. We are living in a modern world where technology is a way of life but it takes away from our creativity. The creators of technological devices make it easier for youths to analyse and process and initially, what they process makes it into their reality more efficiently, but in no way more effectively. It makes it easier but in no way better. So while technology can be creative, it also in so many ways limits creativity from reaching its full potential and depreciates the value of hard work.
I know I hinted—not so subtly—earlier in this column that my workmates are crazy. Let me qualify here that they are good crazy, creative crazy, like me. In my friend Trevor too, I have found a kindred spirit and it’s a good thing because two crazy minds can create such a world of ambition. In no way does the world lack crazy people, the world now lacks passion. But hard work and wit and the right push can launch the innovation and reformation we need in our society to be a great nation.
