As Craig, let us make your mad portrait by answering these 5 questions.
My punk rock nickname is Crusty Craig. My name in Mexico is Goyo.
What inspires you in life and what are your expectations?
*Viktor Frankl, the author of ‘Man’s Search For Meaning’. Viktor Frankl has guided me in spirit from since before I took my first breath in 1973.
**Paris and Marseille, France. When I arrived in Paris on January 28th, 2018, it was with a one way ticket. I had no home to return to in the United States. No home, no job, no safety, no nothing. The people I met in Paris and in Marseille, accepted me and are my friends to this day. Landing in France, with my specific set of dangerous circumstances, back in the US, was what we call in English, a « Hail Mary ». It’s an idiom and clearly as evident in me being a contributor to Comme Des Fous; My « Hail Mary » was a success.
***Doing the impossible. It is an inspirational act of love for the world to prove that the impossible is actually quite possible. It is one of my personal hobbies.
****https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/thing
What do I aspire to? My answer is as simple as it is complex. I pray every day. It is the first thing I do when I wake up and I do it before lunch and dinner. My prayer is this: Dear Universe, Please help me become the best version of myself possible. I am grateful. I am grateful. I am grateful. This prayer is also my answer to your question.
How would you describe your job and why do you like it?
Sanity is a Full-Time Job. It seems to me that my job is to use my strange, fucked up and cool, life experience to help society find new ways to navigate through this minefield called life.
What do you think about the world of Mental Health?
The world is a 6 billion person mental hospital and the rest of us survived.
What positive influence has madness for you?
No one said it better than the French, « Don’t Panic, I’m Psychotic », so whomever is responsible for this brilliance; contact me as you wish… Us survivors have a hard time… I know how to make « Don’t Panic… I’m Psychotic » into a global source of revenue.
Would you like to be and what could be the contribution of a minister of Mental Healthcare?
I am a well known crazy person, so my answer is, yes. I like French People. Your situation is not easy. and it would improve a great deal, if the people who have the « power » , understood that it is the people who have the « power ». I would ask the Minister of Health to spend a day with me eating good food, admiring the Louvre, showing each other photos of our cats, and talking about any possible topic with the exception of mental health and politics. Once able to establish our mutual and warm, humane and human respect for each other; the conversation about « mental health in France » would commence.
If that did not work, and maybe they get upset with me and say « get away from me you crazy American », my only French language response would be, the only thing I can actually say in French « Je suis merveilleux et beau ».
