The Sane Asylum

Verse one:

you project the projects as bein' an object

and object the mob yet rob the convent

whatever it is you dissolve with solvent

the pieces of the puzzle don't fit with Solomon

you's a hollow man can you jive wit'

the rhythm of the street at a nine to five bit

the rhythm of the heat intertwines ya spine wit'

Jello to mellow ya mind in time sit

back relax be captivated

the alarm will sound when activated

to ignite the bomb that rap's created

explode and unload the facts related

to the episode sowed deep so deep

that you need to hoe and row just to keep

the heap of dirt steep in the closet

it's gon' fall out like one deposit

 

Chorus:

welcome to the sane asylum

this ain’t the kingdom it’s just the phylum

voices in ya head you just wanna deny them

but white rubber rooms y’all belong inside ‘em

 

 

“Why do we lose our minds?” (Rushdie, 134)  This is a question asked in The Haromy of the Spheres, a short story by Salman Rushdie.  Everyone has demons.  Ironically, the character Eliot Crane loses his mind by exploring demons and the occult: “pentangles, illuminati, Maharishi, Gandalf.” (Rushdie, 137)

 

 

It is difficult to remain objective when looking at this story.  This is due to the eerie fact that I can substitute myself in this story, fortunately as Eliot’s friend Khan, and have the story fit fairly well to personal life experiences.  How then do we fight our demons?

 

 

“One night (Eliot) woke at three a.m., convinced of the presence downstairs of something absolutely evil.” (Rushdie, 135)  It is interesting to note the time.  There are people who believe that three a.m. is the time of evil forces stemming from a mockery of three p.m., which was the time of Christ’s death.  Howeer, Eliot at least seems to be aware of a potential problem.  This is key to sustaining a level of sanity.  We must be aware of our vulnerability to madness.

 

 

Khan, in relating his introduction to Eliot, states that at the time he was “suffering from a disharmony of (his own) personal spheres.” (Rushdie, 139)  “With (Eliot’s) help, (Khan) hoped, (he) might make a ‘forbidden self’.” (Rushdie, 141)  Khan realized the issues that he had.  However, instead of dealing with them directly, he saught Eliot’s help.  He wanted a bridge to a floating world where he could store his issues away from his psyche.  Unfortunately, it was a fictitious floating world that Khan could never reach.  “So, here it came: the collapse of harmony, the demolition of the spheres of (Khan’s) heart.” (Rushdie, 146)

 

 

Because Khan never dealt with his demon’s properly, he was primed and ready to have his spirit broken by his wife’s admissions of her relations with Eliot.  Looking in on that with the hindsight that I have, he never took the time to work through the issues that he had.  During my first year as a student at Chico State, I had to deal with being on my own away from home for the very first time, living in a city that I did not know among people that I did not know, and deal with the termination of a four-year relationship that ended extremely poorly.  It took me a year, and some really close friends, but the time was spent to heal the wounds.

 

 

This is the problem with society.  It is the thoughts behind the song lyrics at the beginning of this blog.  I wrote the song many years ago when I realized that society had many things backwards yet no one seemed to be perturbed by what I dubbed to be insane.  If people do not realize that they have problems, they cannot fix them.  This is the ultimate cause of Eliot’s death.  It saddens me because I have a close friend who does not see his demons.  While they are different from Eliot’s, I believe that they will be the death of him.