THE WISDOM OF THE MADMAN GALLERY

A wise man happened to be in the middle of the way; his clothing was old; clean but messy; he was walking up and down, would sit, stand up, would laugh, apparently for no reason; because of his appearance, he was called the Madman. He also had an answer for everything and was called the Wise Man. Since nobody could understand him, he was called, the Wise Madman. One day, he was walking by the city and a few intellectuals, thinkers, and philosophers - not having anything better to do, decided  to make fun of him, and said : " Hey, today is a hot day, come under the shade, let's chat ; we are discussing about happiness and want to know your opinion."

" Good, I always have the best disposition to share with you." 

Then, the philosophers asked him in a very ironic way: " Where is the secret of  happiness found?"  While they were thinking, "What can this poor , simpleton, madman know?" 

And the such called madman, answered: " Oh, that is a good question, but the answer is too evident, nevertheless, nobody can see it, the reason is that it is an answer in stages, if you go up one step, you will be able to go to the next, then to the other, and you will find happiness on top." 

 " Be more specific, we do not know what you mean."

" There are stages in happiness, and what is fundamental and necessary is to find errors, defects, problems and lacks."  said the Madman.

 Ha, ha, ha. They laughed :  " How funny, happiness needs of defects, now." 

 " So that something exists, it first must not exist, and only when it has not existed, the biggest lack is found.  If I do not have water to drink and I am thirsty, then, I will look for it and if I make the right effort, I will also value it. If I do not know my limits, I cannot look for solutions, nevertheless, this is very easy but happiness is much more complex, then the second stage is a double stage, is like a jump; but in the first stage I have lacks and in the second stage, I will look for solutions, but what is sure is that I cannot solve all of them." replied the Madman.

The philosophers laughed again and said: " But that is conformism. How can you say that happiness is that?"

 " Men, usually want to live their whole lives in one day, they want everything very fast, and taken to extremes, they eat intensely, they desire intensely, they work intensely, they have fun intensely, but so intensely that it is not intense any more; then, they do not take a moment to realize that they are alive; and everything is so fast that life goes by too quickly. And when you realize that you will not be able to overcome your problems in the totality, you also realize that you will have to live with the problems and thus to slowly overcome them, this will make you humble, besides, it will make you look for refuge and spiritual consolation; then, you will not see yourself  as a super man and you will also understand that the others can make mistakes, this is not to justify them, this is just to live in a society where the habitants are not gods who can do everything."
said the Madman.

They laughed again :  " If you think that way, then you are a retrograde;  society must be ambitious, must cast aside what is bad, and must look for the supreme perfection; if you are not in control, you do not know the power and if you do not know the power, you are oppressed and by thinking in that way, you will never be happy; besides, if you look for refuge in what you call spiritual, you will live out of the dreams and that is not reality."

 " Wait a moment, I told you from the beginning that all this is in stages; when you learn about your lacks, then you work on them, you accept the limits, and you mature in many ways. This does not mean that you let yourself go, but on the contrary, you look for a superior help, you edify  and when you understand the inevitable, you do not separate from happiness, but you realize that happiness is there, as a path to travel." replied the Madman.

Ha, ha, ha, they all laughed and said: " Your madness does not have sanity. Your happiness for us, is the example of your ruin, you live in a fantasy, which is truly madness. We need to have control, power, direction, and all that for us, is  happiness."

 "  To end, I can only say that happiness is a path to cover; happiness is here, there and beyond; we all have been invited to be happy, but sometimes we ask too much of happiness. It is not that I am a conformist or simpleton. But I have found out that one can be happy in spite of all the mistakes in the path; and the fact is that one must learn to improve while in the path, and not to make a condemnation out of the goals. I begin my day as if it was the first and the last day of my life, I talk with happiness as my friend, not an enemy to conquer." replied the Madman.

But they said: " It is getting late and you do not need the shade any longer, go on, continue your way." 

 " Thank you for sharing with me." said the Madman.

 They said: " Leave, once and for all." 

One thing was very clear: The heart of the Madman never changed but they kept making fun of him as he walked away. That is why, the Madman is wise, because nobody believes in him; and the fact is that he has a knowledge that nobody understands.