Dear, Dear Reader,
You need to know something about this blog before you rush in to read it. I WRITE THE WAY I THINK—that is, putting ideas down as they come. I don’t think logically. My ideas come pell mell, that is, as dictionary.com defines it, “in a confused or jumbled mass.” My logic (or lack thereof) might make no sense to you. I hope that doesn’t dissuade you from reading. My posts are always in the neighborhood of 1200 words (readable in about five minutes).
My ideas fall one from the other in various stages of development.
When I am writing in the morning simply because I can’t avoid it, I do not have time or patience to do what uninspired high school and college writing teachers call “making transitions.” I jump from one idea to the next—often with no apparent connection. Usually—and I emphasize USUALLY—the ideas come together at the end as evidence or support for the thought I was trying to reach when I started.
So, if you manage to get to the end, you will discover that my thinking is connected, and that I am always headed for a point that ties all the disjointed stuff together.
Thank you for looking at the pretty picture of the Oregon coast near Port Orford, if nothing else. But I am honored that you will try to make sense of a mind boggled by several wonderful and bizarre disorders over the years.
Sumnonbabidus (my best Latin attempt, by the way, at “I am not crazy”).
That’s all I want to say. My bipolar/epileptic brain is cooperating with me better than it has for a long, long, long time. That undoubtedly means that I think I’m making more sense than I am. Oh well.
Hello there Eastern Texian…I be further west in the Fort where the west begins. I like to learn something new every day. I have to admit I was not familiar with the initials TLE. You’d think working with kids for 30 years would qualify one to be knowledgeable about all things mental.
I completely understand hypergraphia…can’t seem to get any blogs under 1,000 words.
By: atticannie on 09/25/2009
at 11:16 AM
I’d say that your brain is unique. Not automatically that it has something wrong with it. Different is not wrong. My only child has synaesthesia; she doesn’t categorise it as something wrong, just different. It causes some issues for her, but she’d not class it as a disorder. The most she says is she’s wired up differently.
I have begun to understand that my own brain/spirit/self is also different; accepting that this does not make it an actual baseline problem is proving harder.
By: viv66 on 10/05/2009
at 11:09 AM
Different is NOT wrong, of course. Different is only “wrong” when it becomes a problem that I either want to fix because I have not accepted it as part of myself—which is often—or when the difference causes some reaction to my surroundings that I cannot control (the overwhelming discomfort when I have a seizure, for example). I am, however, learning more and more to accept and even rejoice in the way I see the world that hardly anyone else does. Don’t be jealous!
By: Harold Knight on 10/05/2009
at 9:20 PM
Haha!
Wouldn’t dream of it!
By: viv66 on 10/06/2009
at 3:37 AM
Hello, Harold. I had to come check out your blog. I always do when someone makes a comment on my blog. I’m an epileptic dude, too, dude. (Just wanted to use that word twice in a sentence! haha). I may be able to write “short” but I’m renowned for interminably long emails.
I take a large dose of Topiramate to control the seizures. Not 100% but better than what it would be like without it, which would be awful. I guess few people want to read this comment, probably. Just wondering how many writers have “something” akin.
By: Robert Lew Terrell on 10/19/2009
at 10:35 PM
I get TLE. Have done all my life. Averages at about once a week at the moment. Although they are in no way pleasant experiences I am somehow addicted to them. if I go a long period without one I get depressed. I’m also fascinated (some would say obsessed) by religion and describe myself as an Agnostic.
Its been interesting reading your blog.
By: Miss Roberts on 04/02/2011
at 3:59 PM
Hey! Your brain is what it is. None of us have the brain we’d like, or wish for. Greg sent me the link so this is my first “visit”. I look forward to more.
By: Rachel on 08/14/2011
at 2:35 PM
I have TLE, just diagnosed last December. I had a terrible time in 2007 that kicked it into overdrive, and it took four and some years for them to diagnose it — but having read a great deal about it, I suspect I had some bits of it my whole life. Part of that is hypergraphia. I write thousands of words a day, and when I am in good form and lucky, I get paid for it.
Perhaps that’s why your “free associations” are less random to me than they might be to some — either I understand them, or I don’t need to, because I can invest my own meanings in them because, you know, I’m wired that way?
If the religion is the search for meaning in the world, then indeed, we may be the hyper-religious, because we can find the intensity in a word, a juxtaposition, a falling leave, the last note of a fading song. I wouldn’t live another way, from what I see, even with the trouble I’ve had from it. Salut!
By: shava on 08/17/2011
at 10:15 PM
I have a suggestion, Harold, if you would email me at thomasjhubschman@gmail.com.
By: pianomusicman on 01/19/2012
at 9:25 PM