A Splintered Mind

Sometimes you just need to drop everything and live. Plans are nice, and they help me get from Point A to Point B without traveling through the rest of the alphabet most of the time, but there's something to be said for spontaneity. My oldest daughter, Bri'anna, was visiting from Germany. She attends school there, and we don't see her much anymore. One day during her visit she called and said, "Hey, wanna go to Goblin Valley for a day next Wensday?" Just like that. And I said, "Heck yeah!" Although I began to have my doubts that the trip would actually happen the closer Wensday approached, I was happy to learn that everything was on. And so we climbed into a rental car and took off late in the afternoon for a four hour journey to Goblin Valley, a place we had talked about visiting for years. My dream was to visit Goblin Valley and spend hours sketching the li'l critters until my pencil had worn away to a nub. Unfortunately, the weather ...

One of the best psychology books I’ve read in a long while is “Depression and Your Child – A Guide for Parents and Caregivers” by Dr. Deborah Serani . Her publisher approached me to review the book [1] , and although I could not review it in the window of time that they dictated, I did eventually make my way through it. The book starts with an understanding of child development, then shows how Depression in children is a verifiable occurrence. Information is given on diagnosing, then treating, Pediatric Depression. Dr. Serani even takes time to cover holistic approaches before moving on to self-harm, suicide, and parenting tips for the present and future. The book features very comprehensive coverage of almost everything a parent could wish to know about Pediatric Depression. Dr. Serani also advocates cognitive behavior techniques in tandem with medications, giving examples of how to shift negative thinking and help children retrain their minds while being supported by family, couns...

Last June I watched “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” with friends. Here was a man, like me, who daydreamed excessively. I wish I could say that Hollywood made a laughable exaggeration of how epic daydreams could be, but I'm afraid they were fairly comparable to mine. Although I don't drift away into a reverie in the middle of conversations or when on the job, I do drift away—far, far away beyond the restraints of this mortal world or time. The original short story portrayed Mitty as a noble Everyman who fought the banality of his life with the only weapon he had on hand: his imagination. It celebrated his struggle to rise above subservience and become a leader even if only within his mind. The movie featuring Ben Stiller took a different approach. [1] Like the short story, Mitty here was a subservient man with only his daydreams to give his life a semblance of meaning. The effect over all, however, was pathetic, not noble. Going places and doing things were activities...