Born Outside the Box

It's official: Fiorella is insane. According to the latest in scientific research, people with an intense creative drive are on the schizophrenia spectrum.

But then, Fio always knew she was crazy, and Husband is inclined to remind her of the fact from time to time. Who else would insist on painting a house pale blue in the center of an ochre and brown neighborhood? Who else would eschew the usual straight line of bushes across the front for a boxwood curve down to the sidewalk? Who else, with no architectural training, would decide to design a house?

Home and family are the least of her sins. She also had no qualms about trying her hand at musical composition, writing playlets, and publishing a neighborhood newspaper. In her time, she also did portraits (all you have to do is paint what you see) and wrote a boatload of sonnets (if Shakespeare could do it, she could do it).

Her teaching was so creative it got her bounced out of her last job. She color-coded characters from Mid-Summer Night's Dream and sang Bottom's donkey song to her class in a way they'd never forget.

And you, dear reader, have been the beneficiaries of her many off-the-wall forays into philosophy, physics, anthropology, psychology, etc.

Sure, creativity means Fio's been depressed and down several times--but never out. Like Emily D., she lives in possibility, a fairer house than prose.