Let Me Count the Ways

Alan de Botton reckons that instead of asking potential partners what they do for a living, where they are from, etc, we should playfully ask; “How are you crazy?” Then proceed to tell them, “I’m crazy like this…”. 

I’d be there all night. 

However, it’s also an intriguing question to ask yourself.  Are the ways in which I am crazy really that bad?  Aren’t they just foibles? Creative ways of passing the hours?  Of course, the juicier questions are about the underlying patterns initiating whatever crazy has transpired, but I only have 300 words. 

From my sanatorium of crazies: changing the Emma Bridgewater crockery pattern on various ‘Wheel of the Year’ sabbats, to match the season.  Litha to Mabon, ‘Granny’s Roses’.  Mabon to Samhain, ‘Autumn Flowers’.  Samhain to Yule, ‘’Hallowe’en’.  Yule to Imbolc, ‘Winter Flowers’.  Imbolc, Beltane to Litha, ‘Hawthorn’.  Now to me, that’s not that crazy.  The real crazy is why, over the years, have I spent so much money at emmbridgewater.co.uk?  Chasing dopamine hits, harmony, control, completeness?  Crockery as drug of choice (crockery plus biscuits).  Am scared to count how many mugs I actually have.  Not to mention the over-priced tea-pots (the Goldilocks three-mug size ones are ‘just right’).  I know this crazy well, still, I peruse their sales for that one French bowl to complete a set.  Can no longer blame it on ‘acting out’ from stress at work, although suspect that was part of it initially.  That’s not even the whole truth; I just haven’t fancied recent patterns as much, and if I ever find one that matches Imbolc to Beltane, I’ll be in like flint.   

Of course, if you are on the dating scene and someone tells you they enjoy setting fire to sticks tied to sleeping dogs*, get the hell out of there, fast.

*A notion, shamelessly plagiarised, from O’Farrell, M. ‘Land’ 2026 UK Publ. Tinder Press, pg293.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/qz8yepzt59A

There’s a sale on, just saying: https://www.emmabridgewater.co.uk

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheel_of_the_Year