The two young ladies took seats near me and we began the group with the usual reading of the rules (be nice, etc.) and introductions. The young woman with the skinny jeans (whom I'll call Michelle) was fourth on the list and she began to talk about problems with meds and doctors and shrinks, and pain in her legs, numbness in her hands. Getting the idea?
I had thought I might be the only person with bipolar, PTSD, and also have MS in the area. Turns out no. Michelle as well. There was a bonding immediately. Michelle has RRMS and different challenges than yours truly due to age, income, and past challenges. But we face the same demon every morning, determined to wrestle that demon down, even if its just for the day.
It was said in the group that more people show up as the days roll closer to The Holidays. Happy Hanukkah, by the way. You can understand it. We can sound like Charlie Brown very easily.
Charlie Brown should be in our support group. He would find his answers without having to direct the play and find a role for the Christmas Queen. But we'd miss the Snoopy dance.
The fact that Snoopy is cowed into not being joyous by Lucy and Schroeder is more telling than most in the story. Snoopy has to hide his talents (animal mimicking, etc) because "it's not called for." He is threatened ("I oughta slug you"- Lucy) and remains slightly apart from the group through the whole special, even when he joins in the laughter at Charlie Brown and his tree, or in singing the carol at the end.
We need to dance and be as joyous as we can. We get so short a time on this planet that we have to celebrate ourselves, recognize our faults, and be open to new things (like Charlie Brown at the end, realizing the true meaning of Christmas [whatever that means to the reader]). Right now it seems like a time to celebrate a family, one long ago, and one established just this morning. I met a sister.
More holiday stuff to come. Almost to 2000 pageviews. Thanks for reading.
