twitchcraft galore

Choosing your words is an important part of expression and dialogue. I feel, however, that the emphasis should be on choosing words that most accurately and eloquently express the thoughts you are aiming to portray, as opposed to choosing words based on whether or not they will offend someone. That is not to say that I think everyone should go around saying whatever they want and offending people left and right. What I’m really interested in here is the crazy notion that people stop being so offended all the time!

I don’t think this idea is outrageous in the least. Think about it. If you stop letting yourself get so up in arms about a person’s choice of words, a few things happen:

1. Your vocabulary of acceptable language grows, and that can’t be a bad thing!
2. You more easily open yourself up to someone else’s point of view, leading to the possibility of great a conversation.
3. You stop focusing on the surface and are therefore more able to comprehend what is really being said.
4. The less you allow yourself to be offended, the lower your stress level, and the higher your overall contentedness.

While there are some situations which warrant a careful dialogue, such as in a professional setting, I believe that overall we could benefit from easing up on the damn sensitivity. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just say what we mean without fear of someone pouting because you hurt their feelings in a very indirect way? Personally, I think it would lead to more clear-cut communication, and would lessen the chances for a misunderstanding. Besides, a lot of those politically correct terms are so convoluted that their meaning ends up being incorrect (if translated literally, such as using the term “African-American” to refer to any black person), their meaning is vague, it just sounds stupid, or it takes a lot longer to say than the original “offensive” term.

So how about this? Chill the fuck out. :P

Due to my current physical state not allowing me to do much other than sit around, I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately. Great, now I can finally catch up on my serious backlog! Sure, that would be the case, if it weren’t for the fact that I’m a ravenous bookworm, intent on buying at least two new books every time I visit the bookstore. Compound that with the fact that I usually visit the bookstore in search of something particular, and they, of course, don’t have it in stock, and then I have to buy it online anyway. This all adds up to three things:

• My backlog might have actually gotten larger (oops)
• My bookshelves are currently overflowing (damnit)
• My desk and night table each have two books on them which I am currently attempting to make my way through (yikes)

So, what in the hell have I been reading then? Here’s a sample.

All in My Head: An Epic Quest to Cure an Unrelenting, Totally Unreasonable, and Only Slightly Enlightening Headache
by Paula Kamen

I had to order this book online because it’s apparently not available in-store anywhere. I wanted to read it so that I could learn about the struggles Kamen went through to cure her headache. Though her experience isn’t the same thing that I have been going through, I thought it could lend some guidance, or at least some insight into the realms of headaches. Starting off, I was pretty astonished to find that my experience with the neurologist seemed to mirror Kamen’s pretty significantly. We had been treated very similarly, and put on several the same drugs in the beginning (and her story started almost 20 years ago). What this made me realize more than anything was that my neurologist seemed to very much be focusing on my intermittent head pain instead of my symptoms at large. It was a disappointing, although not really very surprising, revelation. As I read further into this book, I really began to feel frustrated for and with Kamen, as her problems never seemed to get better, and her quest for resolve never seemed to end. In the end, I am left feeling two things: slightly disheartened that my chronic problems may never be solved, and grateful that I am not suffering what poor Paula Kamen has been dealing with for close to 20 years.

Narcolepsy: A Funny Disorder That’s No Laughing Matter
by Marguerite J. Utley

This book, which seems to be the most complete and comprehensive text on narcolepsy, was difficult to pin down. I had to order it from an online seller, and after the first one canceled on me, I had to order from a second online seller! This book turned out to be a lot smaller and shorter than I was expecting it to be, but overall I was pretty satisfied with its contents. It is indeed the most thorough and comprehensive text on narcolepsy that I have been able to find anywhere. It not only describes the symptoms, but explains them, and gives personal accounts of experience with each of them. I found it to be easy to read and very helpful in my quest for understanding this disorder. After reading it, do I still feel as though I could have narcolepsy? Yes, I do. Although, not to the extent that Utley has it (which I am happy about).

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
by Oliver Sacks

This one, thank goodness, I was able to find in the bookstore. Oliver Sacks seems to be a popular one, as I keep seeing his books all over the place as well as being mentioned in other books I am reading!). I have always enjoyed reading medical case studies, and learning about the peculiarities of the mind. This book happily engaged my curiosity. Each story was about a person Sacks encountered in his practice as a neurologist, and their strange neurological conditions. The man whose story became the title of the book was a great lead-in to the rest of these mysterious and intriguing tales. A man who can no longer recognize anything or anyone visually, but only by their “music”? A woman whose epileptic seizures made her hear music from her (long forgotten) childhood in Ireland? People who don’t understand words, but only their MEANING when spoken, and vice versa? Fascinating! I don’t think I can ever get enough of the mysteries of being human.

(As you can see, I have a strong tendency toward memoirs and case histories, especially among the realms of medical research. That is not all I read, but most of what I have been reading lately.)