It is interesting for me to ponder the question of what sanity and insanity truly are. Most people would agree that sane people are able to cope with reality and insane people are not. As sane people, we look at irrational acts of violence where life is lost and shake our heads wondering how and why anyone could possibly do something like that. In this instance just like so many others, we all wish to find someone to blame since we do not fully wish to believe or comprehend that a sane person would, one by one, drown her own children in a bathtub. We are loathe to blame the perpetrator of this crime who can't possibly be sane, no matter what the court or jury might wish to say on the subject. Instead we wish to blame the husband, we wish to blame the medical profession, we wish to blame anything that will somehow vindicate this horrible loss of innocence and life. We as a people pay a terrible price when things like this happen. Another crack in the collective beliefs that we share about the American Dream has occurred, again, our innocence is shattered at the question: "How on this earth can a human being be responsible for such brutality, cruelty, and evil?" is asked. We turn to the people we expect to find an answer and they too are puzzled and bewildered. We discuss and ponder and somehow expect to find solace in any possible answer or explanation that comes out of this trial and we are disheartened when nothing concrete ever develops. We are left with the same puzzled and bewildered state we all had when first we learned of this unfortunate affair.
As I see it, the reason for this problem is precisely because we are seeking some sort of rational reason for these sorts of irrational acts. We are trying to make sense of the senseless so we can go on believing that the world makes a sort of sense, when in reality, it remains largely unfathomable to all of us. The truth is that at the same time everyone and noone is to blame for this tragedy. It is a paradox, and that is why we cannot break it down into manageable "pieces," or come to terms with it, or ever understand it fully. When we look at senseless acts and demand that they reveal their order and somehow FORCE them to make sense, whom among us can truly claim to be "sane"?
The secret fear remains: If we cannot properly question or understand the sanity of others, how can we properly assess our own?