inter alios

At last, the IV is set up finally. It took 3 nurses and 5 stabs to get it in place. I also made some chicken and split pea soup today, which is pretty tasty. I finished the soup a few minutes before the nurse arrived, and I ate a bowlful. My tiny personal nurse complained again about having someone putting in the tubing, and is more irritated because I have the pack with the bag of hydration solution, and he's not allowed on my lap as a result. The sulks are really impressive He's glaring at me when he's not patting my leg for me to make room for him. Just now, both boys are curled up and napping on the sofa.

I'm realizing that I'm aging. It's a positive thing-I can't live forever if I'm not aging! And I am also recognizing that the world is changing around me.  Many of the changes are good, and others require that I learn to adjust my thinking. It continues to surprise me just how pervasive and subtle some messages are! It requires a lot of mental alertness to avoid absorbing some of the worse messages.

Did you ever realize that people don't describe things that are ordinary, everyday things? We save descriptions for the unusual. Part of my changed thinking was to realize how much of my reading was based on having white (and male) leading characters. When I first read a book by an African author I realized how much is taken for granted in a description.  In other books, characters  were often described as being white, but oddly enough the men were often described as “dark, brooding” and I imagined them as being caramel colour 😂   In my reading since, I haven't discarded most of my books (except the really badly-written ones) and I've happily imagined the characters to match my friends and people I saw.  Except really evil villains.  They all look alike… and I won’t share that description because I don’t want nightmares 🤪

Have you ever stopped to consider how many unconscious stereotypes you carry in your mind? I'd done some unconscious bias training a while ago and it opened my eyes. We all use stereotypes-it's a shortcut that the brain uses to classify people based on a series of factors. The problem only arises when we don't challenge them in our decision-makings. It's a good idea to check yourself and your thinking routinely. It will help you make better, clearer and fairer decisions. Be aware of your attempts to hide behind a stereotype and actively correct it. Perpetuating them just weakens your thinking.

I look forward to the day when all of these issues are as outdated as the idea that the uterus moves around the body. (Google "wandering womb" for an entertaining read).

I'm working on staying awake until I can disconnect the IV for the night. Amazing, isn't it, that on an average night, I can be awake to all hours, but when I'm trying to stay up until 10:15, I'm half-asleep by 5:00! The contrariness of the body! I'll go do some crosswords or finish reading my Ellery Queen... there's a hockey game, so no TV. LOL! Good night!