MS - wallowing - lists
Here TheBarefootPA shares her slightly crooked view of life, MS and all that other stuff. Sometimes she even makes sense.
Here TheBarefootPA shares her slightly crooked view of life, MS and all that other stuff. Sometimes she even makes sense.
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11 March 2018<br />
… from the BarefootPA<br />
Hey there!<br />
It’s been a while since I’ve had the urge to write, but this morning I stumbled across something that<br />
had me itching toward the keyboard, so … looks like my writer’s block has finally cleared!<br />
So. What was it that made me head for the keyboard again?<br />
It was one of those ‘list’ things, where the first letter of every word spells out MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS,<br />
and the words used to expand those letters were all pretty awful. You know the <strong>lists</strong> I mean, they<br />
usually look something like this –<br />
Miserable<br />
Uncoordinated<br />
Listless<br />
Tremors<br />
Incontinence<br />
Pain<br />
Lethargy<br />
Eyesight disturbance … and so on …<br />
I’ve never liked those <strong>lists</strong>. They don’t conjure up happy sunshiny feelings do they? But I’ve shared<br />
those <strong>lists</strong>, and joined in on many a collective wallow online, been a member of many a group of<br />
fellow <strong>MS</strong> wallowers.<br />
Jeez, I’ve had <strong>MS</strong> for 20 years now. I could write the book. I could.<br />
But it always niggled at me, that people felt inclined to broadcast their misery. The first time I<br />
realised that I somehow didn’t fit in (so there you go, I’m definitely miserable! I don’t even fit in!) –<br />
well, the first time I realised that, was when I saw fellow <strong>MS</strong>ers saying how annoyed they were at<br />
being told they didn’t look sick, and how they looked so good!<br />
And these people were angry about that. Furious even.<br />
I could almost understand that. Like when people expect you to do things that you can’t. You look<br />
too good to be unable to do this, or that, or some other thing. I totally get how that would make us<br />
mad.<br />
But. I don’t think I ever got angry or annoyed by someone saying that I looked really well. Or saying<br />
they’d ‘never know’ if they hadn’t been told. In fact I do recall thanking some of those people (and<br />
wondering why there wasn’t some sort of pageant for us <strong>MS</strong>ers, to see who looked the absolute<br />
perfectest). Perfectest, that’s not a word, I made it up ok.<br />
Anyway, in a sort of protest I went off in a bit of a huff and typed up my own list, it’s not<br />
beautiful or even finished really but I’m going to share it anyway! – here goes …
Ah yes, I love myself a bit hey. 60 years old and I still think I’ll make it some day. I guess what I’m<br />
actually saying is, I’m still me. Things are different, the body needs some work and I’m sure the<br />
chassis needs realigning, but it’s not all because of <strong>MS</strong> and even if it was I wouldn’t see much point<br />
in sharing my misery.<br />
Yeah of course I’m whinging now, from a different perspective but it’s obvious that I’m not the<br />
perfectest. Just thought I’d better point that out.<br />
I reckon I’ll continue to do my best to keep quiet about my miseries - but when I do have a good<br />
wallow I’ll do it on my own if that’s ok. Well, my husband will suffer, but that’s what he signed up<br />
for. Oh how he’ll laugh at that (yes, I do live dangerously!)<br />
But how about you? Why not make your own list, a list that focuses on your good qualities, or even<br />
just a list of things that make you smile? Wouldn’t that be a nice change?<br />
And I’ll leave you here, that’s all for today.<br />
Oh! And of course, when I’m particularly marvellous you’ll hear about it!
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