On the Importance of Being Delulu “What goes too long unchanged destroys itself.” – Ursula Le Guin Being nonchalant is killing us. Humans are social creatures, born with feelings and needs that can only be met by interacting with others, so when we act as though we are too scared of others to interact with them or are above talking about serious topics we are acting in disservice to ourselves. Being nonchalant is the kind of delulu we can do without because it is in a self-feeding cycle with apathy, another great killer of community and hope. If you made it to the Come Friday Forums in the Grappone Humanities Institute in the Fall, you may have very well heard me say something along the lines of, ‘being delulu is the solulu.’ This is not just a tongue-in-cheek pleasantry to me, nor is it a mere coping mechanism, or a meme we should leave behind us. Delulu being the solulu is a fundamental fact of human existence, especially in our modern context. For those out of the loop, delulu = delusion(al) & solulu = solution(al). In an absurd world, we must remain delulu to maintain hope. Historically, the greatest changes have been made by the most delusional people. The first ape to cook meat on a stick was delulu because fire still scares me and burning good meat is probably a cardinal sin. The pharaohs were definitely delulu – who commissions a giant rock triangle as a grave? Astronomically self-important, if you ask me… Healthier examples of delulu include but are not limited to: Jesus (stay with me now), Martin Luther, and Martin Luther King Jr. All three of those men observed the state of their slice of the world as it was, found their dissatisfactions worthy of speaking out for and changed the world forever because of what I half-jokingly call delulu tendencies. This is why delulu people exist, to change the world is a power we all have stripped of us but its essence lies dormant in us, awaiting the opportunity to reveal its glory. The world is fluid despite the rigidities enforced upon us in myriad ways and as the old saying goes, the only constant is change. So go out into the world and be principled in your delusion. Don’t just be hopeful, be hopefilled! Let the shackles of your imagination be broken and dream freely of the possibilities that we are afforded. Things could be worse just as much as they can be better, so let delulu be the solulu. “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man” – George Bernard Shaw