Heather Sellers is a writing professor who is perhaps best known for her memoir "You Don't Look Like Anyone I Know". She lives with a neurological disorder called Prosopagnosia, but commonly known as face blindness. She's managed to earn her PhD in English/Creative Writing and teaches poetry, fiction, and nonfiction in Florida. About 2% of the population is afflicted with Prosopagnosia, and I know three people dealing with this complication, so I'm sympathetic.
I was pleasantly surprised to find an article written by Sellers in the current issue of The Sun. The title "Sparky" caught my eye. I used to do freewriting with a young woman who sometimes referred to her friend "Skippy". I'm a little slow on the uptake so it took me a while to figure out she was talking about her periods.
The story is about her experience with personal growth, to put it in a cliche-type terminology, but that's what it was. She objectively relates her behavior, present and past, tries therapy and meditation, both without any success. Then she has several of those ah-ha! moments we have all too rarely (because of the therapist and the meditation) , and manages to relate the sensation and the experience pretty succinctly, considering how difficult it really is to communicate spiritual growth to each another.
The best part was when she addressed a topic that is near and dear to my own convoluted heart: How our whole being is comprised of many parts. At the risk of being sued, I'll quote part of her text:
(referring to her staid colleagues)
"And I know they must be struggling to rule their kingdoms, too, trying to honor their renegade selves, monitor uprisings. I'm sure they have their own daily coup attempts from warring factions within the psyche....
It's difficult to get the various parts of myself -the good girl and the lover, the wild child and the suck-up, the bureaucrat and the plate spinner, the holy seer and the nun- all to cohabitate. It seems impossibly hard to develop a good monarch inside, one who can supervise and tend to and hear out all these raucous subjects."
And an incredible bit of writing about her meditation:
"It's like running a chaotic kindergarten. But once I get everyone welcomed and set up with juice and a snack, I sit."
I love to recommend The Sun for all you bleeding-heart commie liberals out there, and I highly recommend the writings of Heather Sellers. I haven't done "Sparky" justice here, but hope you'll take the time to find and read her essay.
I was pleasantly surprised to find an article written by Sellers in the current issue of The Sun. The title "Sparky" caught my eye. I used to do freewriting with a young woman who sometimes referred to her friend "Skippy". I'm a little slow on the uptake so it took me a while to figure out she was talking about her periods.
The story is about her experience with personal growth, to put it in a cliche-type terminology, but that's what it was. She objectively relates her behavior, present and past, tries therapy and meditation, both without any success. Then she has several of those ah-ha! moments we have all too rarely (because of the therapist and the meditation) , and manages to relate the sensation and the experience pretty succinctly, considering how difficult it really is to communicate spiritual growth to each another.
The best part was when she addressed a topic that is near and dear to my own convoluted heart: How our whole being is comprised of many parts. At the risk of being sued, I'll quote part of her text:
(referring to her staid colleagues)
"And I know they must be struggling to rule their kingdoms, too, trying to honor their renegade selves, monitor uprisings. I'm sure they have their own daily coup attempts from warring factions within the psyche....
It's difficult to get the various parts of myself -the good girl and the lover, the wild child and the suck-up, the bureaucrat and the plate spinner, the holy seer and the nun- all to cohabitate. It seems impossibly hard to develop a good monarch inside, one who can supervise and tend to and hear out all these raucous subjects."
And an incredible bit of writing about her meditation:
"It's like running a chaotic kindergarten. But once I get everyone welcomed and set up with juice and a snack, I sit."
I love to recommend The Sun for all you bleeding-heart commie liberals out there, and I highly recommend the writings of Heather Sellers. I haven't done "Sparky" justice here, but hope you'll take the time to find and read her essay.
Colorado
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