RENEGADE NEURONS 


Years of doing the right thing is commendable. Most functioning at his societal level do that; they do the “right thing” and behave responsibly.

He did it for thirty-five years, maybe more. Climbed that corporate ladder, raised a family, bought the 'correct' homes, saved for retirement, helped others succeed, performed civic duties and became a recognized pillar of society engaged in elected civic duties.

As the decades passed, society gradually chipped at that pillar. Self-righteous stockbrokers masquerading as friends fed their egos and bank accounts by screwing clients out of their last penny.  They began the pillar chipping.  Along with the brokers, there were the crooked lawyers who screw everyone in order to come out on top and maximize their fee from both sides.  Let us not forget the phony religious zealots pleading for financial help for their church until they depart, unannounced, for Belize in their private jets and retire to the lap of luxury joining self-appointed and twice convicted notorious mafia kingpins of Key Largo. Those are some of the pillar chipping mongrels he became weary of.

Let us also remember the good in society. There are many who are good and treat other humans without malice, but sadly, they appear to be greatly outnumbered.  Through years of doing good, decades of responsibility, he never missed a beat.

Then came that one day when it all began to go to hell. He did not recognize it at first, no one sounded the starting gun, he did not know it was time to run.  Had he known, he might have gotten a gun.

Deep in his psyche, getting ready to come to his aid, the renegade neurons assembled to help him scheme his break from the norm, the break from the standards to which they had become accustomed.

And finally, that day arrived.

He told the lawyers and the stockbrokers, the investment bankers, the fake friends and civic leaders, and the righteously thieving ministers to take a hike, only not so politely.. 

Because his wife unknowingly was embedded in the schemes of those scoundrels, she was divorced.  A gorgeous woman, his wife, known to referred to the scoundrels as "our friends, our network, our community."  

Because his children had run amuck, having been suckled by private schools and universities, he lost tolerance for them and their antics and rejected them, cut them off.  Because he had reached his fill of being duped, abused, and swindled.  He rebelled against it all.

After more than three decades of doing the “right things”, he stopped!

He embarked on a mission of rebellion. He traveled to foreign lands. He drank strange brews. He ingested mind-altering substances. He engaged in sexual adventures with whores, and he thought he’d now begun living life the way a highly successful man was supposed to live life, the image so often presented by Hollywood.  Realistically though, he had no idea of how one should live life, or what living the high life was all about.  Why?  Because he had always done the “right thing”.  He never deviated from the accepted societal norm, from the corporate standards which was expected of executives - the media continually assured he and others like him adhered to the norm.  Do the "wrong thing" and the media will assure the world knows.

Giving deep thought to his transformation, he knew he could quickly learn to be proficient at the being the opposite version of who he had been for the previous three-plus decades.

Where were those friends who enjoyed his family and his company, who ate his food and drank his whiskeys, who enjoyed the commissions from his investments? Gone!  Because he stopped doing the "right thing", their wives sided with the wives of the others, as women do, and forbade their men to associate with the one who threw in the towel and said, “no more.” The wives feared his new behaviors could potentially be contagious, contaminating their husbands. “Stay away from him,” they commanded, and their husbands did as ordered.

When he began associating with the whores who fit so nicely into society during daylight hours, he began to learn and understand that they were not unlike the lawyers, the stockbrokers, the ministers, the politician, and some of the wives of former friends with whom he had associated throughout his life. They all had the same objective – to get a piece of his stash, to get their hands on his cash.  

It did not take him long to comprehend that the fun of sleeping with whores was not much different than his respectful life in suburbia; similarities abound. Finally, after years of trying the various ideas of the fun life, years of living on the wild side, he looked around, assessed the situation and said: “What the hell?!  What in God's name is wrong with me?!”

With that realization he began to flounder, finding different various new activities to occupy his mind, occupy his time, and make himself feel as though he was accomplishing something, anything.  Upon that realization, he expelled the whores, just as his friends had expelled him in the earlier stages of his transition. He began flying solo without complaint; lost, without a map.  But as we should have learned during our study of literature, not all who wander are lost, and those who get lost do not usually remain lost.

He sought the love of a woman who had guided him before the whores.  She failed to have faith in his proclamation of being revived, his declaration of having found himself.  They played but she was unable to commit.  He had given her sufficient reason to not join him, to refuse to commit, but he remained optimistic.

Then it happened!  January 20, 2017, dawned; the day of change.  January 20 was the day he began to get visions of how destructive the renegade neurons can be, regardless of one's title, financial capabilities, or one's position in society.

On that third Monday of January, he was brought back from the deluge that the renegade neurons of his psyche instructing him to implement ten years earlier. On that day he stopped spinning in circles and began watching the elected leader of America, Donald J. Trump, spin in circles, doing much of the same things as he had personally done for a decade.  The media's continuous display of the insanity of America's leader helped him return to normality and aided with his return to doing "the right thing” again. 

He reverting to behaviors practiced before his psychotic separation from society: Discipline, Order, Focus, Acceptable Fun. He slowly regained his soul which had been on a decade long break from responsibility.

By coincidence, with his change, America began its change as well.  The new President, Donald J. Trump, tried to take control of this nation and in the process, allowed the world to see how the destructive renegade neurons can screw up the human psyche.  It quickly became obvious that America's leader was completely under the control of his renegade neurons which, until his appointment as President, quietly waited for the power Donald's new title would garner. Those who had dealt with these renegades, those out-of-control fellas, knew precisely what was taking place when they heard others, like Trump, make declarations which those who had survived the impact of their renegade neurons knew of the insanity created by the renegade neurons.  The same symptoms that Hitler, Mussolini and Putin were cursed with.  They never understood it.  They allowed the world to see the insanity these little neurons created.

It was Donald he thanked for being such an exceptional example for all that is the opposite of doing the "right thing" and thus allowing his return to sanity. ​ As he said to his therapist: "When I saw how one has no idea of the renegade neurons being in control and constantly spews forth insane demands and commands, it is not difficult to want to return to being a respected and respectful citizen.  But it is difficult to see it because the insanity is so gratifying, at first."   Those who are able to identify the insanity created by those renegade neurons have a chance to recover, some totally, some somewhat, yet others are too far gone, even once they identify their insanity.  Donald Trump happens to appear as one of those who is too far gone.

Postscript: With the renegade neurons expelled from his soul, he knows that he has nothing but time to validate his passion for one woman, a guide who periodically enlightened him of his insanity.  If she were ever to believe him, is of lesser importance, than him knowing that he is permanently cured of the renegade invaders, of the neurosis that had infected him for a decade.  If this woman does nothing more than provide guidance, her remaining in the game will continue to be an indicator that he had succeeded at expelling the demons.  


Copyright © 2018 Raymond Cannefax​