If you’re as old as I am, you’ll remember that very cool song by Pink Floyd called: Shine on You Crazy Diamond. I heard it again this morning playing through the airwaves as I was waiting for my coffee at our local coffee shop.

It never really occurred to me when I first heard the lyrics – when I was in my early 20s – the magnitude of the words – Shine on you crazy diamond.

The song was written for Syd Barrett who was one of the original band members and who was let go because of his erratic and dysfunctional behavior – a brilliant man who was strung out on drugs and who couldn’t function as a responsible band member. He suffered from mental illness.

The story goes that he turned up one day – a few years after being let go. He was fat, bald, and as crazy as they remembered, but they let him stay for a while.

And yet despite Syd’s craziness, the other band members recognized the brilliance of this man. Syd was the inspiration for writing this song.

You and I may not be as crazy as Syd was, but we all have a level of craziness that dims our light – that diminishes the diamonds that we all are.

The crazy voice in our head tells us we’re not good enough or ready enough to pursue our dreams. We hear the crazy thoughts that tell us we don’t matter…that we’re insignificant...that we are defective. None of us is immune to hearing the crazy voice.

Too many of us are moving through life postering as self-confident. But it is a false if not wretched form of self-confidence, and it is squeezing all the juice out of our lives.

If we want to become powerful creators – if we want to use our voice to speak up and out for ourselves and the many causes we believe in, then we have to transform our communication with ourselves so that we can transform the communication we put out into the world.

To all of you crazy diamonds out there! Believe in your brilliance and shine on.

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