Be madmen, drunks, and bastards…

Thomas Merton was a profoundly lovely human being. He was a Catholic monk while he was alive. He understands what it is to be true to ourselves…that is, what is sometimes and perhaps often involved as we muddle through. Yes, that often initially painful process we must all forge through should we wish to really live. It’s a different adventure for every one of us. We are a kaleidoscope of the living universe…each one of us an aspect, aperture and/or lens…all of us necessary and important and best when we dare to be who we are in every moment which I’ve found to be a delightful and ever changing thing that cannot be defined.

If I had a message to my contemporaries it is surely this: Be anything you like, be madmen, drunks, and bastards of every shape and form, but at all costs avoid one thing: success. If you are too obsessed with success, you will forget to live. If you have learned only how to be a success, your life has probably been wasted. — Thomas Merton

Of course it made me think of the Jack Kerouac quote: The mad ones

More Thomas Merton on Beyond Meds

and more on madmen and madness!

• Rethinking madness
• Embracing our madness: the way forward

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