Donna Speaks: Who is Crazy?

Ya'll remember Marty Feldman.  Ya know, the British actor with the eyes that really bugged out.  He played Gene Wilders' assistant in "Young Frankenstein" - the hunch back whose hump kept changing from his left shoulder, to his right shoulder, to his left, etc.  Marty was responsible for procuring the monster's brain.  Scouring the lab for the appropriate specimen, Marty grabbed a jar that he thought was labeled, 'Abby Normal" when it really read, "Abnormal".  You know the rest.

Marty also played Michael York's, "twin", Digby, to York's "Beau",  in, "The Last Remake of Beau Geste".  After losing their inheritance, they joined the French Foreign Legion and were sent to some really hot and sandy place.  At the end of the movie, Michael York, the hero, was awarded a medal for bravery.  He asked his "twin brother" what he thought of the medal.  Marty replied, " Medals are like hemorrhoids, sooner or later, every asshole gets one. 

Let me explain why Marty Feldman popped into my brain when I decided to write about another group of "The Invisible Ones": individuals with mental health handicaps.  If we are honest with  ourselves, we are all,  "sooner or later... Abby Normal". OK.  So the Marty Feldman thing is a stretch.

Mental illness, like other illnesses, can happen once in a life time: "I broke my leg when I fell outta a tree when I was five years old."  Or, it can be a life-long problem: " I am a paraplegic because I broke my neck when I fell outta a tree when I was five years old."

In my professional life I worked with about half, I broke my leg, and half, I broke my neck.  When folks would ask me, "How can you work with crazy people?!", I tell them, "I don't."  I work with people who'd tried their best to climb the Tree of Life carefully, but fell along the way, and were injured.  Like my friend who ended up with Althea in her front yard as a result of Hurricane Katrina.

Have a good day, Althea.