Dear Klast:

“First I must apologise for what I said about how you sound like my wife. It came across a bit mean“- interestingly, when I read  about me sounding like your wife, I found it endearing, it felt nice, not at all mean.

“I’ve been a bit stressed since seeing my therapist, being given all these labels. My BP has gone right up and my GP is getting me to do a raft of tests and scans to eliminate any other physical reasons for my high BP. He put me on medication to lower it, which has a whole raft of side effects itself. It got as high as 150 over 110!“- I am sorry that your blood pressure went up. I read (mayo clinic. org) that there are different levels of BP: Normal, Elevated, Stage 1, and Stage 2. Your reading of 150/ 110 indicates stage 2.  For stage 1, a recommendation is to talk with a healthcare professional about taking one or more BP medicines. For stage 2, the recommendation is to take more than one medicines.

“‘A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing’ because if you think the knowledge you have is all there is, things can end up going bad… knowledge could be declared not true (too scary to endure). This is when knowledge stops being factual and becomes lies, untruths. Trump likes to play around with this. Flat earthers etc…“- excellent point, especially in this era of acute disinformation and misinformation. The former president is Mr. Misinformation.. Trumformation. I will think more about the too scary to endure truths in my life.

I thought that people who believed that the earth was flat no longer existed, not since the 20th century started, and then I met a flat earther a couple of years ago, a very memorable meeting. I was bamboozled.

“My father was like this, we haven’t spoken for 20 years. I remember having a dream yelling at him ‘Shades of grey, Shades of grey!, things aren’t just black and white!’ Whereas if you are the other way you have a more colourful high resolution world view. You are more aware and accepting of its complexities both known and unknown“- profound. Seeing the world as black and white is a way to reduce anxiety, a way to feel secure, confident, not confused. Colors are delightful unless they are too bright and hurt the eyes.

I haven’t spoken to my mother for over 10 years. When she was angry at me, she went on tirades where she portrayed the world as black and white: she was all good, I was all bad.. a very bad person with bad intentions and bad.. just bad. Actually, sooner or later, she portrayed everyone as bad, and herself: as their innocent, all-good victim.

“I’ve always had this desire to explore the universe to the fullest extent I can get out of it. Just like I have always felt all the bad things that have happened to me aren’t the be all and end all. I always had this seemingly unlimited wellspring of hope coming from somewhere unknown“- INSPIRING.

“I’ve always been good with wildlife…  One time someone gave us a large wild parrot with a broken leg, we put it in a cage and fed it for three months while it stood on one leg, then one day it lowered its healed leg. After that it would follow me around like a puppy“- an endearing story!

“Of Eriksons first 7 stages I am pretty much the same as you. The last line of the forward of that link says ‘These stages, however, can be resolved successfully at a later time.’ This is what I think we have both been doing to varying degrees“- yes, we have this in common, resolving stages.. at a later time. Better later than never.

“Maybe, life’s been a bit intense recently.“- yes, better get your BP down before any new challenges. I am fine whether you choose to reply to other members or not. Either way is fine with me. I know quite a few people on BP medication which work well for them. I hope to read good news from you soon. By the way, I have an appointment for a brain scan in a couple of days.

anita