Having an 'Abby Normal' Brain...

This past week, I went to Costco on my lunch hour to have my computer glasses repaired. I sat down at the optical service counter. The optician assisting me was new and didn’t know how to repair rimless glasses, so my case was turned over to a more experienced technician. Two to three hours later, I “woke up” in Auburn Regional Hospital, having lost a chunk of time. I have no recollection of paramedic examination, being strapped in a gurney or an ambulance ride. Even the short emergency room visit is sketchy in review. Evidently, I had had a Grand Mal seizure for the second time this year. When I came back to full awareness, it was as if I never left. I hadn’t felt bad beforehand and felt nothing in the wake of this brainstorm, save a dull headache. In my embarrassment over my lack of control, much like the shame you would experience if others were to tell you how horribly you behaved while drunk, I returned to work the next day acting as if it were business as usual. Staff members not on board when I had my seizure at work last February approached me to check in and make sure that I was feeling better. I shut them down by changing the subject at hand. I was uninterested in further humiliation, however well intended. In a purely physical sense, Grand Mal seizures are much harder on witnesses and loved ones that they are on the person. While the patient just “goes away” for time, others must seek what could be life or death medical attention, witness the terrifying common denominator of life’s physicality and worry about the outcome. Immediately after the convulsions, a patient can be briefly psychotic or at the very least extremely confused. Will my loved one come back to me fully and consciously functioning? The emotional fallout on the family is immeasurable. The patient just awakens slowly as if from a very deep dream state. Like Lazarus, the patient walks out of their tomb of non-awareness unscathed to find others weeping over them. You can’t help but think of death after having had this experience.

Book Review: Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy, Gary D. Schmidt, copyright 2004, 217 pages. *****

If I could give a book 10 out of 5 stars, it would be Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy by Gary D. Schmidt. The central character is a young teenage boy that moves to a small community in Maine from Boston around 1912. Turner Buckminster is the son of the new minister of a local Congregational church. Unbeknownst to his father and mother, Turner is targeted by local bullies almost immediately. This harrassment drives him away from potential male friends his age and into the company of a young African-American girl that lives on an island just off the coast and clams daily for her family's subsistence. Turner's forbidden friendship with Lizzie Bright has a profound influence on his moral and spiritual development as town politics work to destroy the village of shacks where Lizzie and her grandfather live. The story is near and dear to my heart having been raised in a clergy family and having raised my own children in that context. Whether or not you affiliate with the Christian faith or any faith, you will both be kept on the edge of your seat and inspired to stand up for what is right by the redemptive qualities of this novel.

The Purpose of my Blog...

This blog has been created as part of a personal journey that I decided to undertake. I am currently reading several award winning books written for younger teens in an effort to identify styles and genres that are appealing to me. It is my hope to eventually find time to write books for this age group. I will be writing reviews of the books I read as well as everyday observations of the world around me as I gather images to use in my writing. Happy reading!