Notes from the Edge of Slumber.

You might recall that, over the summer, I was afflicted with a tenacious rash. I finally saw a specialist who was able to correctly diagnose me, but was unable to offer a cure. Because there isn't one. The hives that are a bodily response to my thyroid disease can only be controlled, not be rid of. So, nightly, I take a medication that does control them quite well, but also makes me sleepy. Once they kick in, I am asleep just like that. Often in mid thought.

The inconvenience of this is that I often do my best thinking in the moments before I enter the land of nod. It used to be that I could wake and recall those important thoughts, but now I don't just forget what they are, I forget that there is even something I was supposed to remember. That aside, I am getting the best sleep of my life and discovered that I can be surprisingly charming when so well rested.

But back to the matter of losing track of ideas. If I'm alone in bed, I'll use Evernote to record what's on my mind. If I'm not, I've taken to emailing myself. In either form, in a Christmas morning kind of way, I get to open those surprises and see what sort of genius was brewing. I hope for genius, anyway. Sometimes it's nonsense. Sometimes it’s sense, except I’m not sure where I was going with it. Consider the following recordings from the past year:

• “Workplace as an ecosystem.”
• “I want the world, not a little corner like a tomb.” (It’s actually a line from the brilliant movie Indochine, and I know why I registered it.)
• “The genus nerd: geek, dork, dweeb…”

Last night I emailed myself, and I must have had a great force of will because it was fairly long. Here’s what it said (I love how I painstakingly punctuated. Even when I am tired and expect to be the only reader.):

“Prevention. A post about how arguing one side against another is pointless and powerless, but prevention is powerful."

"We never had guns in our home. As an adult, I have never wanted them in mine. In part because my past did not create a space in my present for them, and, in part, because my present mind, built these days more on nature vs. nurture wholly feels no need or desire. This is all of no matter. Guns exist and they exist in homes of people I know, love, and respect. We must prevent, not react.”

We all know what this is about. I don’t see a need to elaborate. I can only say what many have already said, and not necessarily as well as those far more educated on the subject than I am.

I will just add that today, on social media, was a day of more arguing and more vitriol and less understanding, dialogue, and sensitivity. It seems to me that we, the people, are the problem. :sigh:

PS: I did find this to be an interesting perspective.