Usually I send cards to my friends, but the local card shop has closed, the post office closed and one of the post boxes has been removed.
I decided I would make a donation to the charity Parkinsons UK instead. They do work on trying to find and resolve the causes of Parkinsons disease. Hopefully I will be helping others in my circumstances.
Cards are a fun way to show you care about your friends and family. They were first sent by the Victorians in 1843. They became more popular in the 1860s and 70s. People used the penny post to send them to their loved ones. I do t really want to stop sending them, but digital life affects reality.
My Parkinsons is getting worse so I’m getting some therapy to help keep my voice strong and help my throat muscles.
I’ve joined a few choirs over the years and found out singing is great for lung health, breath control, and keeping your throat clear.
So this week I’m actually going to 4 rehearsals and will be singing with friends at a Christmas show on Friday. My main concern is my poor balance and weakening muscles. Shaking and stuttering isn’t helping either, I need to keep trying to improve. Maybe I need physiotherapy. Thanks for hearing my moaning!
Endlessly ringing through my head. We were singing this minor key song this evening at choir and it’s turned into an ear worm….
When I went to bed a few hours ago I was determined not to be kept awake by intrusive thoughts. I was going to think of the word ‘the’ over and over again to keep my mind on the straight and narrow path to slumber. It almost worked, but the ‘the’s’ started to form into the Soul cake tune, and soon it took over.
It didn’t help that I’d gone to bed on an almost empty stomach, not feeling well, I’d decided just to eat a couple of sandwiches, and I was being kept awake by the feeling of hunger. I’ve come downstairs for something and ended up eating a tub of curried noodles.
Now I’m sitting in my armchair wondering what to do. I can hear traffic outside and the patter of rain on the ground by my front door, almost like the soft sound as a cat licks itself before settling down to sleep.
Maybe I’ll stay downstairs and hope that I can doze, or go back to bed and try and sleep with the radio murmuring softly. Insomnia is not my friend.
Soon it will be dawn again, things to do. But with the change of the clocks I always feel jet-lagged, unsettled, trying to find my comfortable place.
Maybe writing here, using my thoughts of other things will clip the earworm and stop the repetitive tune. I do hope so. Goodnight.
Youdraw drawing. I’m trying to catch up with things but the youdraw interview put me in a spin. So many old memories. Old friends, thinking about what I was doing and what I was capable of twenty or so years ago. And the frustration of no longer having those abilities.
I want to think about how I can get some of it back. I’m going to see if I can get better medication for Parkinsons. Does life have to be this hard? Mentally and physically I’m feeling my age.
I once had a long argument with someone who told me that my way of speaking was not complax enough. So I deliberately changed how I was talking, I spoke about the method of communication I used and that while I understood his phrasiology I preferred clarity. In the end we came to an agreement that each of us had our own styles, but I did feel he had been condescending and patronising.
I still feel the same way about communicating with people. Yes you can be elitist, but what is the point? A teacher or expert might try and share information but if they don’t use explanations and analogies how can they pass it on. Simplification can help, visualising data using illustrations is a way of showing how things work. Teachers may assume you already understand the basics of a subject but you might not have attended the right courses. I never did Physics at A level, but did a course that required some knowledge of it. I had to resit the exam at the end because of that.
As far as I understand dumbing down isn’t simplification, it’s not even sharing correct information. It is using less knowledge and making it sound plausible, effectively cutting off dissemination (sharing) of any number of subjects to the detriment of civilisation. Instead of the sum of information growing and people’s lives improving, whether it’s in medicine, or finance, understanding the weather or geology, we seem bent on causing harm to people and places. An attempt to keep the masses down?
This post is a bit odd, I wanted to explain what I thought but I’ve been a bit verbose. I don’t know if I’ve achieved clarity, I just think dumbing down is not good for the world.
Mallaband-Brown 