Just David

On the last post, my baby cousin left a kind comment that I don’t know that I deserve. I mean, I’m still just David. Here is the thing: we all have talents and gifts, right? One of my sister’s myriad talents is organizing decorative pillows. I stayed a night at her home and the guest bed was like a work of art. I didn’t want to mess it up so I just slept on the floor. Not really, which she knows because she had to fix my feeble attempt at throw-pillow reassembly. I bet she spends no more than five minutes a week on this skill. What if she suddenly had four hours a day? Might she be even better? It is hard to imagine but yes, I think she would be. And if that is all we saw of her handiwork, we might be impressed. What we wouldn’t be seeing is her neglect for everything else.

For the past 15 years I’ve enjoyed writing, and I think I do OK at it. But over the past two years as my MS symptoms have limited most of the few talents/hobbies/skills that I had (like singing, reading, working, and playing softball and tennis) I have focused on writing, which has been mostly unaffected. Combine that with the blogging phenomenon and I end up with some pretty powerful David-propaganda. It is akin to the keen sense of hearing that the blind develop.

But that isn’t the whole picture. My wife, who has never been a fan of my writing, sense of humor, or blogging, experiences the whole me. In her world and with her priorities and pressures, I’m not nearly the help I used to be, despite being home all day. I will say that it is not for lack of effort. Whereas before I probably exerted 95 on the husband scale with 97 results, my “effort” now is probably at 120 with a result of 30. Given our present cares, she can’t grade on effort, so she’s faced with the very real 70% husband helpfulness slump. It Is maddening to both of us.

I was touched by Joanna’s kind words, as I am everyone’s. I feel blessed to call her cousin too. I guess I just wanted to go on record that I am not drinking, or necessarily selling, the Kool-Aid. I’m still just David, but with an inordinate time spent writing!