Crazy ain't bad

I've had an interesting realization: all my biggest heroes are (at least to some degree) what conventional society would call crazy. Lets look at the litany:

Nicola Tesla: basically invented the modern era, at least electronics-wise. He wouldn't eat spherical food, and became obsessed with the number 3.

Howard Hughes: Aviator, film maker, financier. He built the Spruce Goose, a gigantic plane, built entirely out of wood. He suffered from a deep fear of germs, and bought Las Vegas from the Mafia, for a place to stay.

Emperor Joshua Norton the 1st: Lost his fortune on rice, so he declared himself emperor of the United States. He walked around San Francisco in full military uniform, selling currency he made for food and cash. He was a close friend of Mark Twain's, and corresponded with Queen Victoria. He was either the craziest or the most sane person I've ever heard of...

Isaac Asimov: One of the greatest writers of the 2oth century. Mayhaps not as crazy as some of the others here, but you can't tell me that someone who writes 400 books can be entirely balanced.

Gabriel Dumont: One of the leaders of the North West Rebellion. Not crazy per se, but he followed Louis Riel, who definitely counted as strange.

John A. McDonald: The Father of Confederation, and our first Prime minister. Drank more than any one person could possibly imagine, and dreamt of a national railway when it seemed as likely as building an elevator to the moon would today.

Hell, the only sane people on my list are Darwin, Robertson Davies, and Tommy Douglas, and even they wouldn't qualify as normal....

Really, this is all very gratifying. I love seeing people who don't fit in the mold make the rest of the world fit around them. Being outside the norm isn't a horrible thing, it just means you face somewhat different struggles and problems than the rest of the world. And if you gave me a choice between suffering from the struggles of a dreamer or a norm, well, there's no doubt which one I'd pick...