You ask me how I became a madman. It happened thus: One day, long before many gods were born, I woke from a deep sleep and found all my masks were stolen -- the seven masks I have fashioned and worn in seven lives -- I ran maskless through the crowded streets shouting, “Thieves, thieves, the cursed thieves.” 
Men and women laughed at me and some ran to their houses in fear of me.
And when I reached the market place, a youth standing on a house-top cried, “He is a madman.” I looked up to behold him; the sun kissed my ownnaked face for the first time. For the first time the sun kissed my own naked face and my soul was inflamed with love for the sun, and I wanted y masks no more. And as if in a trance I cried, “Blessed, blessed are the thieves who stole my masks.”
Thus I became a madman.
And I have found both freedom and safety in my madness; the freedom of loneli-
ness and the safety from being understood, for those who understand us enslave something in us.
But let me not be too proud of my safety. Even a Thief in a jail is safe from another thief.
This passage i quote from Gibran's my favorite "The Mad Man". Such carries deep meaning that really touched me to the core, being a big fan of Gibran's. It tills that: mortals as we are, we dont understand the wisdom behind many things that happen to us. And that we, sometimes have to learn about things the tough way - whom amongst us who din't experience such once at least! Nothing in this life is ultimately bad: From failure we acquire experience and from pain we we gain strength.
