If you call someone a “train wreck” isn’t that short hand for “a train wreck waiting to happen?” If someone were a train wreck then they would not be walking around, right? So, it’s kind of a Gabriel Garcia Marquez thing where everybody sees what’s happening but nobody says what’s going on. Why do we do that? I often do that because I assume everyone sees what is happening and someone is going to step up sooner or later. Someone who knows the train wreck better and who’s in a better position to be heard.
Or maybe someone who knows the facts. I don’t always know the facts. Maybe sometimes I do, but I don’t know that I know. Generally speaking, my assumption that someone is batshit crazy is based on limited information that is later clarified by some other piece of information which either confirms the batshitiness or indicates that I too would be batshit under the circumstances. It’s a crazy world, after all.
And when I think of someone who is a train wreck, or rather a Chronicle of a Train Wreck Foretold, I often think of Casey Jones because Casey Jones saw his wreck coming too. The only problem with that is that Casey Jones only saw his wreck from far enough away to prevent his passengers from dying. He was a hero for keeping his hand on the brake and not jumping off the train. There is noting heroic about hurtling toward your own demise when provided with ample warning. That’s more like a Grateful Dead song.