Comments from 16 April

Philip said…

a ~very~ happy member of AA once answered the question, "What is Normal"....

....

.....

by saying, "Silly, normal is a setting on a washing machine"

For the post yesterday, Liz did more good to Einar, handing him Snorri, than 40 Psych-Therapists could do in 40 months....

Just my opinion on most Psych's, but I have had Two GREAT ONES, Dr. Peter Mist, who helped me (finally) fill out my VA Appeal for PTSD, it seemes that the VA did not think I could be a Combat VET, because I fixed Helicopter radios....

I told one shrink: "do you know another name for Helicopter????"

"No" he replied....

I smiled and said Target. My base was located in the Fish Hook, Tay Ninh, called the Fish Hook, due to the Country boundary lines, we were surrounded by Cambodia, by the North, the West, and the South...

and we caught Rockets & Mortars from each of those directions, plus Nui Ba Dinh, the Black Virgin Mountain (volcano really)where the Cu Chi Tunnel system began.....

but today I am better, not normal, but better.... and I will enjoy this days Post....

philip

187th AHC, The Crusaders

Trouble Shooter 1 5

Tay Ninh RVN 1969-70

Thanks as always, Philip, for your words. Hope things are going well for you today.

You’d mentioned a while back all the rain you had been having, and needing to do roof repairs on Small Beginning…well, the months-long dry spell ended here with torrential downpours last night sometime after midnight, which led to my discovery of a major leak in my roof that hadn’t been there before. This presented itself as water pouring in at one corner of the house, not dripping but pouring, so I spent about an hour up there on the roof in the rain and wind early this morning trying to get it patched up sufficiently to reduce the pouring to a drip…got it done, finally. I was actually having fun up there prowling around in the dark and the rain on the slick, windy roof by the end of it, and didn’t want to come in! :D

Anonymous said…

Sometimes I feel too .... well, too young, to get involved in the discussions. Kinda like my input would be out of place, gratuitous, if you will.

That said, I have to throw down my eleventeen cents (two, adjusted for the inflation that there is none of) regarding "normal".

It's none of my business to define normal for anyone but me. Look, each of us has a "normal" that we decide if we are at, or not. So long as that 'normal' doesn't impact negatively on another person, then it's nobody's business precisely what constitutes normal for another person.

It's normal for Einar to embrace the cold and sit naked up to his neck in dry ice for months on end, but that is decidedly ABnormal for a Wild Horse Desert critter like me. Same token, Einar would probably find what I consider normal, to be repulsive to him. BUT it's not my place to pass that judgement on him or anyone else, nor to demand that he conform to MY perception of normal, just the same as it's not anyone else's place to tell me what I should do.

The ONLY proper way to impose your "normal" onto someone else is by quiet demonstration. By quiet I don't mean silent, but without being overbearing or oppressive. Walk the walk, and when someone asks, only THEN should you talk the talk.

It really does take all kinds. That's why we're called INDIVIDUALS. There is no such thing as a "normal individual" :)

Bill

Thanks for your words, Bill. I don’t think your input is out of place here in the least, and am glad to get your perspective on things.

Yes, I’m sure your version of normal, temperature-wise, would be very different from Einar's, since you’re a desert critter. I don’t know about that dry ice thing, though! That’s one I’m pretty sure Einar hasn’t tried yet, but new ideas are always welcome…

Anonymous said…

Thanks for the story , finally caught up , was reading all week end to do so . As I mentioned to FOH on anther site that I thought he knew a little about ptsd , some of us didn't find out what the problem was till after 30 yrs. There all a lot of things that people will do to try to stay normal it was drinking at first until the good lord took it away and the va still wanted me to say ,my name is Dave and I'm a acholic but I refused I told them that I couldn't say that as I am not one anymore. So that was one way to be normal in my mind at the time, Next was working until I could work anymore . Finally work so many hours and no sleep that I finally had a siezure just like Einar and ran into a bridge , so if you want to keep your drivers lisenes you take meds. the rest of your life Some of what normal does for you.

To Philip

I too was station at Tay Ninh From jan. 1967 until apr. 1969 probly chewed some of the same dust.

Welcome to the site--do I recognize SE209 from the other site, there? Good to have you here!