Posted on 09/24/2014 9:42:23 AM PDT by CharlesOConnell
My Mom had 2 dogs, a big one and a little one with cancer. The little one had to dig a little hole under the foundation, outside the kitchen window, because the big dog wouldn't leave him alone.
So it is with people who instinctively react against quirky people--they act as if it were a communicable disease that has to be quarantined.
In reality, people have a hidden spiritual potential that the modern, materialistic economy can't easily assimilate.
As a child I was one of those who is all over the place and into everything. I count as my chief accomplishment in life, learning to sit still and shut up.
(No one chooses this. Beware of prejudice--it could hit you at any time. "Hope I die before I get old/Talking 'Bout My Generation/The Who" won't carry you very far.)
The main thing that clued in my behavioral quirkiness with Tourette's Syndrome--it can be very subtle--was my poor handwriting--the most common learning disability associated with TS.
The most obvious behavioral clue was that I would hit anything, such as a light pole, that would be liable to give off a resonant sound. Not very obvious.
Be that as it may, well into my 40s, I suddenly outgrew my poor handwriting.
This is how I did it.
As a child, in the 4th grade, around 1964, we were hit with the then-latest educational fad, somewhat like the Common Core, called "Speed Reading". We were forbidden to read aloud--thank goodness for the Read Aloud movement http://www.amazon.com/The-Read-Aloud-Handbook-Sixth-Edition/dp/0143037390 .
Moving the mouth while reading, even throat movements if the mouth and tongue were restricted with induced rigor mortis, were "signs of ignorance".
In my 40s, I turned this brainwashing on its head.
I realized that the core of my bad handwriting problem was that while I was executing spelling of a word in the present, I was starting to spell out a word I was thinking about, two or three words on down the line. My handwriting was marred by constant erasures or crossings-out. It was very frustrating.
I short-circuited this hiccough using a trick I learned as a child to help with spelling: For a low Anglo Saxon word like "enough", I would memorize a literal sound like "Enoch".
(I think its true that many middle-English, Anglo-Saxon words had a similar spelling but were pronounced literally in the accent of the time, but while the pronunciation was modernized, the spelling remained the same.)
In any case, I learned to short-circuit my "Speed Reading" brainwashing, by deliberately making myself vocalize the word I am writing in the present.
This provided sufficient separation from the word I'm thinking about 2 or 3 words on down the line.
Voila! Suddenly, I had such good handwriting, I would take any opportunity to show it off.
My handwriting has always been doctor scribble on a good day. Plus I am left handed. I vaguely remember in elementary school they tried to convert me and it didn’t work.
Doesn’t matter. Few can read cursive anyways.
Given the contrast between the quality of my content and the wreck that is my ‘handwriting’...
...from one perspective I think I need a stroke.
Regardless, I view with contempt those that would judge me for my cursive quality. I could care less. The computer is the best invention ever in this regard...
...now if we can only perfect eliminating the cursed keyboard...
That is an extremely insightful analysis of your learning disabilities and the ways in which you overcame them.
With the dysphasia, did you also find yourself butchering the last couple letter in a word while handwriting?
For example, if your were to handwrite the word “seriously,” did the s,l and y blend together a manner that would make them indistinguishable to the reader? You are in such a hurry to write that next word that there is a carelessness in the last two or three letters?
Form what you have said, it seems that you also have a broader form of dyslexia. Your reading is good, but also hurried like your writing?
How I overcame bad handwriting.....nuns with rulers
I overcame my bad hand writing by playing lots of computer games and becoming a pretty good typist. You can’t learn to type by playing a console game.
The older I get and the more I sign my name, the less legible it becomes. My hand cramps now, if I have to actually write something out by hand of any length, and even block script gets very messy, I’m impatient with it. Typing is much less trouble and faster.
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