Madness or Insanity
What is the difference between madness and insanity? Some would say they are entirely one and the same. My husband certainly believes so. I disagree. Insanity is an obvious break with reality. It is intense and hot and loud, a firestorm of wild emotions and angry behavior that cannot even attempt to be hidden.
Madness is a subtle creature, a cruel and quiet snake winding its way through one’s thoughts, silent yet present. It can often be mistaken for quirkiness, can be disguised and cloaked until it perhaps even seems entirely normal and sane.
I can feel the delicate tendrils of my mind stretching and struggling beneath the growing pressure of incoherent thoughts and incomplete ideas.
Can they see it? Do they whisper about it, their words filled with worried concern, or uncertain contempt? Do they wonder, however quietly even to themselves, if I am up to the task of working under the pressure of the army?
And the most important question of all… Am I merely mad? Or is this madness a precursor to a growing insanity?
