Never sleep with a person crazier than you are.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Never sleep with a person crazier than you are.

Michael Wanner

Michael Wanner is a drifter I met in Brazil who dubbed some films for me. I just checked on Google to see if he is out there somewhere. I found a bunch of Michael Wanners, but not him.

Finding English dubbers in Brazil is a headache because Brazilians almost always have an accent, so their work is not of much value for the American market. You cannot find hardly any trained Americans (or English, Australians, etc.). So I was always leaving signs up at English language schools and places like that inviting native English speakers to come audition. This provided a host of interesting characters. The weirdest people go to Brazil.

Since I had to train them on top of working with them, my contact was deeper than just a freelance professional. Part of the training was to get them to speak with the proper emotion. I found out a good way was to get them to speak of things in their past that were similar to the emotions on the screen. In this manner I learned a lot of personal things about them. (Love scenes were always a riot.)

During one of these discussions, Michael (who looked a little like a hippie) told me a story of how he once went on a Homeric bender with another guy and they talked for two or three days about sleeping with people, analyzing it from all angles in their drunken stupor. At the end, the great truth they decided upon was the quote above.

The quote obviously cannot be used for all cases. If everybody observed it, nobody would sleep with anybody. We are all a bit crazier or less crazy than everybody else. But when the craziness is evident, I have found great truth in this.

My experience with people who are jealous, envious, paranoid, or have obvious trouble with any of the negative emotional orientations has shown that they are practically immune to reason. You can talk and talk and talk about the real value or goal and finally get them to abandon their attitude for a few hours and get some work done (or get some peace or whatever), but the next day, after they sleep on it, they are back to zero and even stronger in their craziness. They now have arguments against the reasons you convinced them with the day before.

One recent case here on OL was the plagiarism. All the talking and talking and talking I did would result in getting this dude to stop for a while. Then he would be back, plagiarizing even more blatantly than before with stronger and stronger rationalizations. You think I would have learned after all these years, but I still have a soft spot for the crazies in my heart. It's almost like that whistle that only dogs can hear. The crazies emit a frequency and I respond to it.

Well, when you sleep with a crazy person, you open yourself to her (or him). Before you know it, you are entangled in a web of irrationality that has no way to be fixed except get away from it. (And for the smart-alacks out there, no, I did not sleep with the plagiarist. )

This truth is a law of nature. When the bedroom gets into the equation, a less crazy person will never bring a crazier person up to his (or her) level. On the contrary, the crazier person will always drag the less crazy down to her (or his) level.

There are no exceptions.

And the craziness always gets worse. No exceptions to that either.

Michael

[Brant Gaede]

And the craziness always gets worse. No exceptions to that either.

Michael

If so craziness needs craziness to re-enforce itself, just as the contrary needs the contrary.

--Brant

[Chris Grieb]

Michael;

I was afraid this tread was a reference to Kat.

I know that dealing with paranoids that your statement is very true

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

I was afraid this tread was a reference to Kat.

Chris,

LOL...

If we are going to go there, Kat was definitely the loser. She's not nearly as crazy as I am.

Michael

[Chris Grieb]

Neither of you is crazy. I should know.

[syrakusos]

It is a famous quote --

“Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Mom's. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own.”

http://thinkexist.com/quotes/nelson_algren/

I first ran into it in MICHAEL ROGERS' novel Silicon Valley. The newspaper reporter sleeping with the executive remembers her fathers words -- and I quoted it (often, but apparently not often enough) to my daughter: Never sleep with anyone who has more problems than you do. On THE WELL, I got the link to this above, the source: "Never play card with a man named Doc..."

Anyway... thanks for the stories Michael, and, yes, I too, thought was going to be about Kat...

[Rodney]

[PalePower]

But the crazy people are the only interesting ones! =D

[Chris Grieb]

I think if you live longer you will find that is not true.

By the way; Welcome back!

[Ellen Stuttle]

I think if you live longer you will find that is not true.

By the way; Welcome back!

I have to differ with you, Chris. My experience has been, the longer you live, the truer it gets. ;-)

Welcome back, indeed, Elizabeth. You've been missed.

Ellen

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