The measure of [mental] health is flexibility [not comparison to some 'norm'], the freedom to learn from experience, to be influenced by reasonable arguments and the appeal to emotions, and especially the freedom to cease when sated. The essence of illness is the freezing of behavior into unalterable and insatiable patterns.
--Lawrence Kubie

Well, just wow. I love this freedom to cease when sated part...aren't we just NUTS when we can't stop eating those damned cashew nuts??? And don't we have trouble learning from experience, even when it rears up and smacks us across the face? And being influenced...My mother used to say of my father: "My mind's made up. Don't confuse me with facts." And I can tell I'm sane, that my life is sane and going where it ought to be going, when I can feel the flexibility, the ability to go with the flow, the awareness of what I'm learning AS I LEARN IT.

I looked up Larry Kubie on the internet and while the name was vaguely familiar, the man I found there was not particularly. An obituary of him makes him sound like the kind of guy who basically pisses everyone off by not shutting up when he disagrees with them, but his dear friends loved him anyway. He was associated with the first place I ever sought psychological help, the Pratt Institute in Baltimore. But I don't think I ever met him. This quote is part of a David Brin science fiction novel I'm reading. I've learned more than I really would like to about the sun from this book.