11-10-08 13:52: Ardith Hinton to James Bradley, "Nature/Nurture...  2."

 AH> there's a bit of Don Quixote in both of us. In short:  1)
 AH> You can't win 'em all & 2) Nothing ventured, nothing
 AH> gained.  ;-)

The literature left a question if Don *was* on or off his figurative rocker,
no? I do recall a theme, that acceptance is not as hard a thing as most make it
out to be. 


 AH>           Yes, he might.  I'd been wondering if you encountered
 AH> some resistance over your interest in playing percussion...

"What if we start you out on guitar, or maybe a flute? OK, but move to the
drums if you still want, after..." 

 AH> whether it seemed too much like fun to other family
 AH> members.  I rebelled against the idea that I wasn't
 AH> "working to capacity" in school, even when I was devoting
 AH> eight hours a day to homework.  I decided there was more to
 AH> life & took up the clarinet as a hobby.  You can tell these
 AH> people you're improving the functioning of the corpus
 AH> callosum & whatnot, but it's all Greek to them.  IMHO I did
 AH> what was right for me, anyway....  :-))

If I hadn't the physical release, I am *sure* I would have been in more
physical altercations. I noticed even in grade school, that I could clear my
head of life frustrations, and take up the frustration of not being up to a
passage. Catharsis... It's still Greek to me! 

 AH> one should let it all hang out because their relatives were
 AH> so-o-o wonderfully supportive, but your (and our) mileage
 AH> may vary.  We also have a T.E.N.S. machine, BTW....  :-)

Now, I need to find a cheap supply of rechargable 9V batteries, and cables with
the right ends, and I'll be set. Oh... I'll be out of adhesive patches, and
electrolyte gel next. ... ... ... )-:

I wonder how I could have had my parents know *nothing* about my condition(s).
 


 JB>  get the willies from the "back bedroom" you speak of.)

 AH>           When I was growing up, most people could see only
 AH> two alternatives... institutionalize the kid or pretend
 AH> s/he doesn't exist.  Fortunately I had some examples to
 AH> draw upon in which such kids led more or less normal
 AH> lives....  :-)

On later reflection, I realized how my connotation of "The back bedroom"
needn't be besmirched by Austrian deviants. 


 AH>  But we owe a lot to those parents who didn't go along with the
 AH> popular wisdom of the day & demonstrated that their
 AH> offspring could do far more than the experts (who'd based
 AH> their conclusions on studies of folks in institutional
 AH> settings) thought.  With appropriate support, many parents
 AH> I know will say "Yes they can!" & bust their a$$es to prove
 AH> it.  Although I may be old before my time, the cost to
 AH> society will be reduced over the long haul....  :-)

Nothing is on TV, so I hadn't changed channels since a show about a large
family finished. Well, a new show to me is called Twins, Twins, and Sextuples
just came up. The last born of the bunch is a girl with CP. After we were
introduced to the rest of the family, they started explaining her story. One
kid said, "She took the hit for the team." When it was moms turn, she was
hunting for an explanation, when she lit up and said, "She's the only one who
doesn't yell at me, so I kinda like her best."


... Todays mighty oak, is yesterdays nut who held its ground.
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