A Goofy Thought

Sometimes when my little dude starts getting restless in the car I turn on a CD of super-happy, high-pitched, child-friendly tunes. It’s not my favorite music choice, but he seems to like it. One of the most irritating songs is called “There’s a Hole in the Bucket.”

I recall it from my childhood. It’s a tragedy of Greek proportions in which a fellow named George laments to his wife Liza that their bucket has a hole in it. Poor, dear Liza proceeds to explain to George in agonizing detail how to go about mending said bucket [with straw, which you cut with an axe, which you sharpen with a stone, which you wet with water] only to return to the problem of getting water in a bucket which has a hole in it. Maddening!

On Little O’s disc, which is a Disney product, Liza is the longsuffering wife of Goofy, rather than George, but the original quandary remains as vexing as ever.

Listening to it today, I felt the need- as I often do- to clarify some realities to my child which can be a little confusing in products marketed to children. (The Bubble Guppies live under water, so they do not need a fire station or firemen, for example.)

“Just so you understand, sweetie,” I’m saying from the driver’s seat, “Goofy probably has sustained some sort of traumatic brain injury, and that’s why Liza is explaining every step to him in great detail, and with such kindness and patience” when I am struck with a thought:

Maybe Goofy’s brain is so slow that he can’t figure any of this out. Or MAYBE Goofy is so brilliant that he was instantly able to perceive the circular nature of this problem and is instead, leading Liza through it step-by-step so she can catch up with him!

OMG- what if Goofy is actually a genius??

Now, you may argue that I’m not spending enough time with adults if I’m having revelations like this. And you’d probably be right. Or maybe I’m actually a genius for making this discovery when no one else has! It’s all in how you look at things.

That thought reminded me of an article I read many years ago which put forth the theory that insanity and creativity are points on the same continuum. So the question becomes: is this person insane or just really creative? Where’s the line? And how much of that judgement just comes down to societal norms and expectations?

If an accountant and an artist both were exhibiting the same unusual behavior, would we label one “crazy” and one “creative”?

Don’t we, to some extent, give a “pass” to artists to be less practical, responsible, or organized than “regular people”?  How much do I, personally, believe in this idea of the artist as a flaky, flighty person with little regard for social norms?

Maybe more than I ever realized. Because I also seem to feel, on some level, that anyone who doesn’t behave like that must not be a real artist.

So where does that leave me? With a bit of an identity crisis, I guess. I’m living a responsible “normal person” life while feeing- inside- like I’m an artist. Why should these things be mutually exclusive?

And when did I buy in to the belief that they are?

That’s just goofy!