prognostication

First off, it's a great word. A wonderful word. It takes some verbal skill to get it out of your mouth, but when you do, it's a lot of fun to say. Don't believe me, say it out loud.

prog nog sti kay shun.

Lovely, isn't it?

Sadly, the word can only be used in certain conditions and sadly those conditions almost always contain someone who believes that they have "gifts". These... are NOT... my favorite people. In fact, they are only slightly less annoying than "Rennies" (renaissance festival actors... I say actors to be kind, but actors create roles and still maintain seperate lives but these people refuse to abandon the role and continue to say, "thou" and "thee" all the time. I hate that) The gifted people are always sure that there is something speaking to them - stars, voices, animals, dead relatives, the ages... whatever it is, these gifted people are always doing what they are told to do by inner dialogues that only they can hear and the rest of us, well, we have to treat them like they are TWO people. We have to pretend to be accepting of this and not act like it's strange. I'm sure that the gifted people get sick of answering questions like, "is so-and-so or such-and-such, here now?"

Treating the gifted this way is asking a lot of the rest of us ungifted. And it would be a lot easier if they weren't naturally weird people to begin with. If they were normal in some fashion, I guess I could live with the periodic one sided conversations that are being held out loud. But the gifted ones always seem to be the oddest of the odd. I can handle most of it. I love odd people. But not an odd person that has baggage. And for all their gifts, they are always broke, lonely, drunk, a heavy smoker, out of shape, and caught up in scandals with previous employers. For some reason, the voices never seem to have great insight into financial matters, health issues or dating standards. [side note: these voices do often tell them who or who not to sleep with... I think this is where the voices express their humorous streak because they always say no to what could be a great piece of ass and say yes to equally broke and equally annoying, Rennies]

I am not sure if the gifted people are really gifted or not. Perhaps these people just saw, "The Neverending Story" too many times and really feel that they have some connection to the outcome of the world. (that movie, by the way, is the greatest film on manic depression, bipolar disorder, and countless other mental disorders, that has ever been made - connection, I don't know) Of course, these people sometimes get things right and cast shadows of doubt in YOUR mind as to whether or not they are gifted or if you're just too close minded to accept it. They get a pick right and then they do something stupid like claim to be immortal or a vampire or to have seen a unicorn and then that shadow of doubt clears right up. They are back to being freaks of nature.

Perhaps that's the catch. Maybe it takes someone that believes in unicorns and mermaids to be able to free up the part of the brain that allows for prognostication. Perhaps you have to be willing to accept the slings and arrows of the world around you in order to hear the voices of the truth that exist in our heads. If we think that things are impossible, then when will we believe that they are possible?

I have a theory that says that the people we call crazy are actually privy to information that affects us all, but they lack the ability to communicate it and that drives them insane. Perhaps if we were to take them seriously, we might find the answers to our future. Of course, this would mean more Rennies in our future, but, hey, it takes different strokes to run the world.

Hopefully that future has no Rennies in it.