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Book Club, books, comic books, creativity, depression, growing up, opinions, perspective, Random thoughts, reading, religion, sickness, spirituality, writing
So, I’m taking Benadryl like candy. Because there is some foul weed making my life a living hell. I took the fam to see the new Avengers movie last night and when we got home, I started sneezing and couldn’t stop. Today, my eyes are like sandpaper and I have dizziness from all the fluid still in my head.
This too will pass, of course, but I really hate having the crud. It makes me even less productive than I usually feel anyway. But it was only a couple of weeks ago that I said, right ‘chere on this blog that I would listen to my body and be kinder to it. So I am. I stayed home today and, while I am returning phone calls and texts, I am doing little else. Should probably start on that book club book though……
Speaking of books, I recently finished Backseat Saints by Joshilyn Jackson. This book goes hand in hand with gods in Alabama and I really, really loved how Jackson intertwined the two stories. I didn’t know the books were related to one another when I bought either of them, but it was a brilliant way to show different perspectives of the same characters depending on the point of view. I gobbled the books up like candy and am now reading a book by a local author. The Magnolia Triangle is written by Mississippi author, Joe Lee, and is set in our native state. His writing style reminds me a bit of John Grisham and the characters in the book, while sometimes over-dramatized, are still not unlike people I know and have known. What I don’t like is when an author seems to be trying too hard to make me like or not like a character. I’d rather decide for myself. It makes the story that much more intriguing. That aside, the book is definitely an engaging story and I hope Lee continues to evolve as an author because I think he will get better and better.
Speaking of writing, I’m not doing much of it. One of the lovely side effects from being on an antidepressant (for me) is squashed creativity. That doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy writing as much as I always have, but I have to work harder at it when my brain is medicated. It’s a double-edged sword, this mental health treatment business. But I have to be as healthy as possible for my family. So, while it might be easier to get creative and introspective with my words when I am off the meds, I don’t miss the deep, looming pit of depression and hopeless attitude toward all things.
Speaking of dark, looming pits and hopeless attitudes, the new Avengers movie leaves audiences on one hell of a cliffhanger. I do so love the Marvel Universe. And DC as well. Reagan has become SUCH a fangirl of the movies and characters in them. I’m so glad she finds entertainment in them instead of the Kardashians and Seventeen magazine. There are a lot of very strong female role models in the comic stories and it really makes me happy that those are the examples that my daughter and future generations of girls have for some kick-ass examples of equality and leadership.
Speaking of leadership, I attended a baccalaureate service for my niece on Sunday. I have 3 “nieces” (some are actually cousins, but titles schmitles) graduating from high school this year. I love my niece but was reminded in an instant of why I left the Baptist church as soon as the preacher opened his mouth. The advice he gave was not at all like what I’d give. He encouraged the graduates to find “like-minded people” with whom to associate at college. I understand the dangers that exist out there in terms of drug and alcohol temptations for college students and younger. But I think, just as damaging, is only surrounding oneself with people who look, act, and believe just like ourselves. Where is the growth in that? It is this type of close-mindedness that makes me often feel like I escaped a cult when I left the Southern Baptist church. I still know some really wonderful people within it, but the doctrine, I see more and more, did more to screw me up than lead me into closer fellowship with God. Jesus was friends with the biggest outcasts in society. Teaching young people to first and foremost hang out with like-minded people in no way challenges their capacity to really and truly love people as God intended. It is in being around people NOT like ourselves that we can slowly begin to grasp just how much bigger God is than the box most churches try to keep Him in for the sake of their own need to be “right”.
Speaking of being “right”, we have some elections coming up in the near future and, can I just say, the decision to leave Facebook could not have been made at a more perfect time. My meds are good, but I still struggle with the concept of patience. And I have none when it comes to politics anymore. So I stay away from it. You can’t fix stupid, so I put up my toolbelt.
I guess that’s all the randomness I have in my Benadryl-drenched thoughts for right now. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I am off to blow my nose. 🤧
A Pensieve View 
Oh my yes. My teen and college years with “like-minded” people was a bubble that handicapped me in many ways. DEFINITELY not the advice I would give either! My advice would be totally opposite: Find as many people to talk to who are totally different from you and get new perspectives and learn and balance that with what you read and study and learn.
I realize this probably came across as a bashing of the Baptists, and I don’t intend for it to be that, but I really struggle attending those types of services anymore. And I know why they would think I’m struggling: conviction of the Holy Spirit. And it is. Conviction of how very wrong and damaging some of my old belief systems were to me and how I interacted with others.