It dawned on me not too recently that since leaving the military I have done very very little if any reading for pleasure. Part of this (I suspect) was the slow erosion of my mental acuity due to my undiagnosed / untreated hypothyroidism. Additionally what reading I did accomplish was directly related to school and often involved titillating case studies of environmental law etc. So, as time passed I somehow trained myself into dreading reading.
This is the polar opposite of 'traditional' me. To elaborate...
I was blessed in that I had a parent who read to me (and my siblings) almost nightly when we were children, our mother started with the classic McGuffey readers then moved on to the equally classic Little House series. I loved stories, I was so excited to learn to read that I couldn't wait to get to first grade, I once startled the bejeebers out of my dad (also a voracious reader) by 'reading' the Musicians of Bremen out loud one day while I was home sick from school. Of course, I had simply memorized the story after hearing it read aloud by my mom for ages.
When I did hit first grade I had a horrendous time learning to read, so much so that I was put in a remedial group and, if my five/six year old memory can be trusted overheard talk of being held back. But I got it in the end because I was hellbent on getting to all those wonderful stories lurking on the shelves around me. All the secrets and excitement imprisoned between those glossy and wonderful covers.
I got there too. When I was a high school senior we had to complete a 'Senior Project' in order to graduate. This required several papers and reports, volunteer hours, etc. One of the requirements was an annotated bibliography of books we had read while in high school. I hated the idea of the project, now, as an adult I can see some merit in it but I still think it's an unfair burden on some families that may have to expend vital resources to help their student get to and from a volunteer opportunity etc.particularly in this day of increased poverty. So, out of spite, I went through every book I owned (and had read often, well usually multiple times) and annotated them, then I went to the school library and the local library and looked up as many books as I could recall from there, and of course I added all of our required reading titles from various classes. The end result, including other documents and paperwork, was thicker than a phone book and well over half of that was the annotated bibliography.
So, at one time I was a helluva a reader. I could polish off a novel in an easy four to five hours.
It wasn't just being up to my ears in grief, stress, school reading, and job hunting. At one point I broke down and actually paid for insurance with a mental health clause because I thought I was losing it. I would read a paragraph in a text and have to re-read it three or four times. I was no longer comprehending things. Assuming this was a side effect of the lingering grief from my mom's death (I blamed a lot of symptoms on that, not necessarily inaccurately but it wasn't helpful to say, 'oh it's just grief' and move on, physical symptoms of grief CAN be treated, and ought to be) I had simply ignored it and continued as best I could.
So I had a physical first, mostly because I wasn't sure how to get a shrink or counselor and thought starting with a GP would be wise.
Then she palpated my throat and frowned. HELLO SWOLLEN THYROID.
Things have clearly improved immensely since then. Not only am I on medication to control the symptoms but I landed an amazing job with Amazon.com and have a real life again.
So now I am back to reading for fun. And, let me tell you, I [expletive deleted] missed it.
Okay that's all well and good, sunshine and puppies and rainbows but what the heck does that have to do with my DP? I'm so glad you asked!
I'mma go ahead and bust out the rest of my reading. I've stopped and started An Introduction to Roman Religion by John Scheid numerous times. So, I shall endeavor to complete it by the end of the month. I hope to do a chapter by chapter posting of it much as I did for the Cynthia Eller title I've already completed (and still find to be straight up fabulous), I posted regarding the first chapter ages ago, I'm going to leave that as is and NOT look at it until I've re-read it and made a new post. Compare and contrast so to speak. I think it'll be interesting. So stay tuned! The kid is BACK.
This is the polar opposite of 'traditional' me. To elaborate...
I was blessed in that I had a parent who read to me (and my siblings) almost nightly when we were children, our mother started with the classic McGuffey readers then moved on to the equally classic Little House series. I loved stories, I was so excited to learn to read that I couldn't wait to get to first grade, I once startled the bejeebers out of my dad (also a voracious reader) by 'reading' the Musicians of Bremen out loud one day while I was home sick from school. Of course, I had simply memorized the story after hearing it read aloud by my mom for ages.
When I did hit first grade I had a horrendous time learning to read, so much so that I was put in a remedial group and, if my five/six year old memory can be trusted overheard talk of being held back. But I got it in the end because I was hellbent on getting to all those wonderful stories lurking on the shelves around me. All the secrets and excitement imprisoned between those glossy and wonderful covers.
I got there too. When I was a high school senior we had to complete a 'Senior Project' in order to graduate. This required several papers and reports, volunteer hours, etc. One of the requirements was an annotated bibliography of books we had read while in high school. I hated the idea of the project, now, as an adult I can see some merit in it but I still think it's an unfair burden on some families that may have to expend vital resources to help their student get to and from a volunteer opportunity etc.particularly in this day of increased poverty. So, out of spite, I went through every book I owned (and had read often, well usually multiple times) and annotated them, then I went to the school library and the local library and looked up as many books as I could recall from there, and of course I added all of our required reading titles from various classes. The end result, including other documents and paperwork, was thicker than a phone book and well over half of that was the annotated bibliography.
So, at one time I was a helluva a reader. I could polish off a novel in an easy four to five hours.
It wasn't just being up to my ears in grief, stress, school reading, and job hunting. At one point I broke down and actually paid for insurance with a mental health clause because I thought I was losing it. I would read a paragraph in a text and have to re-read it three or four times. I was no longer comprehending things. Assuming this was a side effect of the lingering grief from my mom's death (I blamed a lot of symptoms on that, not necessarily inaccurately but it wasn't helpful to say, 'oh it's just grief' and move on, physical symptoms of grief CAN be treated, and ought to be) I had simply ignored it and continued as best I could.
So I had a physical first, mostly because I wasn't sure how to get a shrink or counselor and thought starting with a GP would be wise.
Then she palpated my throat and frowned. HELLO SWOLLEN THYROID.
Things have clearly improved immensely since then. Not only am I on medication to control the symptoms but I landed an amazing job with Amazon.com and have a real life again.
So now I am back to reading for fun. And, let me tell you, I [expletive deleted] missed it.
Okay that's all well and good, sunshine and puppies and rainbows but what the heck does that have to do with my DP? I'm so glad you asked!
I'mma go ahead and bust out the rest of my reading. I've stopped and started An Introduction to Roman Religion by John Scheid numerous times. So, I shall endeavor to complete it by the end of the month. I hope to do a chapter by chapter posting of it much as I did for the Cynthia Eller title I've already completed (and still find to be straight up fabulous), I posted regarding the first chapter ages ago, I'm going to leave that as is and NOT look at it until I've re-read it and made a new post. Compare and contrast so to speak. I think it'll be interesting. So stay tuned! The kid is BACK.
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