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What I have been doing…
I am shamelessly stealing this idea from all of the others who have done it before.
Ha Jin re-creates the terror, the harrowing deprivations, and the menace of unexpected violence that defined life in Nanjing during the occupation. I have read Waiting by the same author and found it to be a subtle and moving understatement of life’s expectations. This is not that book, but in its own way shows the same underpinnings of human nature.
Haven’t started this one yet, but it will provide a respite from Waiting. More on this one later. I haven’t read the previous book by this author, but I admit I was drawn in by the title. We’ll see.
The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb. Melanie Benjamin
Both of these titles are checked out from the library on my nook. At least I don’t have to find a place to stack them. (See previous post.)
What ADHD has done for me
At age 64 I think I am finally giving up the pursuit of perfection in my being. At least, I hope I have. It is a strange thing to be diagnosed at 50 and to have it explain the missing achievements of the past. So, as I look around my bedroom at the stacks of clothes not put away, books not read, drawers left half-open I find that I finally want to let go of the feeling of failing for being able to keep it things in the perfect order that I have been brainwashed into believing that they should be.
I am absolutely certain that the number of broken bones I have incurred, the cuts, the falls, the clumsiness can be attributed to the ADHD. While my career as a ballerina was in no way affected since it was never a goal, I can see why so many things in my life happened the way they did. Crazy parental behavior played a part in it, also. By the time high school graduation arrived I had lived in no fewer than four states, twelve cities and, at a minimum, fifteen houses, apartments, and hovels. This does not include the few empty houses my mother broke into so we wouldn’t sleep in an alley somewhere.
All of this has led to a strange affliction of self doubt, feelings of total insecurity and an absolute tendency to say whatever is on my mind at the most inopportune moments. It has also created an individual that has survived much of with a wicked sense of humor, a cornucopia of useless knowledge and a level of guilt that I am now totally willing to pass on to some void in the sky.
Meanwhile, the pile of books sets untouched, the clothes are easier to get to and I have to go now and do something that doesn’t require me to sit still for more that 10 minute.
WHATEVER WAS I THINKING? 