"How i became a Madman" by Gibran Khalil Gibran

You ask me how I became a madman. It happened thus: One day, longbefore many gods were born, I woke from a deep sleep and found all mymasks were stolen -- the seven masks I have fashioned and worn in sevenlives ; I ran maskless through the crowded streets shouting,

"Thieves, thieves, the cursed thieves."

Men and women laughed at me and some ran to their houses in fear of me.

And when I reached the market place, a youth standing on a house-topcried, "He is a madman." I looked up to behold him; the sun kissed myown naked face for the first time. For the first time the sun kissed my ownnaked face and my soul was inflamed with love for the sun, and I wantedmy masks no more. And as if in a trance I cried, "Blessed, blessed are thethieves who stole my masks."

Thus I became a madman.

And I have found both freedom and safety in my madness; the freedom ofloneliness and the safety from being understood, for those whounderstand us enslave something in us. But let me not be too proud of mysafety. Even a Thief in a jail is safe from another thief.