"...I'm not all there myself."

Cheshire Cat: If I were looking for a white rabbit, I'd ask the Mad Hatter.
Alice: The Mad Hatter? Oh, no no no...
Cheshire Cat: Or, you could ask the March Hare, in that direction.
Alice: Oh, thank you. I think I'll see him...
Cheshire Cat: Of course, he's mad, too.
Alice: But I don't want to go among mad people.
Cheshire Cat: Oh, you can't help that. Most everyone's mad here.
[laughs maniacally; starts to disappear]
Cheshire Cat: You may have noticed that I'm not all there myself.

Much Madness is divinest Sense

By Emily Dickinson 1830–1886 Emily Dickinson

Much Madness is divinest Sense —

To a discerning Eye —

Much Sense — the starkest Madness —

’Tis the Majority

In this, as All, prevail —

Assent — and you are sane —

Demur — you’re straightway dangerous —

And handled with a Chain —

 

 My grandparents are very curious people... as I've told you, I live in a small town in Oklahoma called Westville. I have to say, and I might be biased, that I think for a small town we are doing a pretty good job of beating the stereotype... However, there are a few of us, most of them older, that have trouble adapting to the times. My grandparents are two of them. My papa still has my grandma wait on him, and he makes sure that I am aware that my duties as someones future wife will be to wait on them like Grandma does him.
Now don't get me wrong Grandma is just as bad. I was going to wear converse to my Jr. Prom... until she found out. I got a ten\fifteen minute lecture about how this was unlady like and inappropriate. They are very old fashioned.
So, this in mind, I suppose that it shouldn't have surprised me when, after I told them about a book I had just read (the main character had schizophrenia), they blanched.  You see I loved that book, and, believing that all of us are a little crazy\mad in our own way, related to the main character. This worried them. They didn't say exactly why, but I assume that it is because they don't want me associating with "different" people. They really are the product of their generation.
I am not sure what their definition of madness is... I think that it is someone who is different than they are. Grandma saw a lady one day on T.V who was bald, by choice, and went on about it off and on for like thirty minutes. She just couldn't understand why a woman would shave off all of her hair willingly. I tried to explain that some people do that, but she just wouldn't listen to me.
Now, I love my grandparents. I don't agree with them most of the time, but I love them. However I have to disagree with them on this. I don't think that crazy people are so rare.
You see, I think that we all are quirky, my grandparents included.
In Much Madness is Divinest Sense Dickinson is basically saying that the definition of crazy depends on those who buck the system... those who are not in perfect step with the majority are the crazy people. And in one of my favorite books, Alice in Wonderland, The Cheshire Cat has an interesting opinion. That everyone you talk to is crazy. Some more than others, yes, but everyone, all the same. And by the end of Alice's journey, you can find a little bit of madness in her as well.
I have found that the weirdo's are usually the wise ones.
There is a quote that I love by Mark Twain that says this,

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.

This quote relates to the poem by Dickinson. Maybe the best side to be on is the one that everybody turns their nose at. Now, some could use this as an accuse to do crap-head stupid stuff, but you know what I mean when I say that following the crowd usually isn't a good idea.
What about Robert Frosts, The Road Not Taken?

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.      

 Am I a cheesy kid or what? Its true, I am, but here's the thing. This is still true. I don't know how many times I let someone else get bashed because I couldn't break from the mold. I think that most of us do this. But I suppose that this makes sense, most of us would be the majority...
                                                                     -KC-