A Lot of the Time, I Just Pick One

What strategies do you use to maintain your health and well-being?

I can maintain my health, or I can maintain my well-being. I cannot do both simultaneously. That is because being autistic constantly puts my mental health at risk. It’s funny, though. I have so much less depression now that I realize I’m autistic. Wandering around not knowing what the hell was wrong with me and how to cope with it was excruciating, because ADHD just didn’t fit. Autism doesn’t, either. The hemispheres of my brain are synoptic. They must be seen together before my personality begins to emerge.

I believe that I am one of the most complicated people on earth, but I only believe that due to the number of people who have told me I am already…….. it’s a mixed bag, to be called “the most complicated person that anyone has ever met,” because they do not always say it with exasperated tones. I find myself wondering what makes other people think they are so simple in comparison.

I use my writing to maintain my well-being, because reading me helps me understand me. Very few people comment on my entries unless they interact with me directly through e-mail or Facebook. I do not take that to mean that no one who reads me disagrees with me; far from it. The sample size on that research is quite large. I have reached my limit. Zac, Bryn, Lindsay, and my dad keep me grounded. I listen to them. What they think of my writing matters. I haven’t left Supergrover out. I decided that she wasn’t allowed to hear any more of my story until I was allowed to hear more of hers. If she does the work, she’s welcome. I’ve said that before, and I’ll say it as many times as it takes. I don’t need her to disappear, so if she shows up it’s not like I’d ever turn her away. I am just finished with trying to think of things to talk about. In that relationship, Supergrover hit the nail on the head when she said my narrative was old and tired. I was exhausted at hearing myself talk.

I can’t sit there and say “she’ll come back, she always does” because the past is no indication of future behavior. I don’t hedge bets. I put out the welcome mat, leave the porch light on, and go to bed. I don’t know what it is about us where we both just need to make love as absolutely complicated as it can possibly get by being the two most extreme personality differences in the known universe. I’m the oldest child, assigned female at birth. She’s the oldest daughter in her own family. If you’ve ever seen a fight between two first children……… it’s still probably going on.

Which is why talking about my health and well-being is different. I am as healthy as I get, excited about creative projects and buzzing with activity. I have breathed life into my creative ideas by using AI as a research assistant, and I’m beginning to pump out a non-fiction book very, very quickly.

I asked Copilot to research every declassified operation CIA has and compare it to its list of nonfiction books on intelligence and tell me what operations are written about the least. I got some inspiration and we just started talking. It was a rabbit hole of, “oh, interesting! How does that connect?” About an hour later, I said, “summarize our conversation,” and now I have a fully-functioning outline.

I also have a list of books to check out from the library, because AI can only do so much….. but the part it did was the part that’s the hardest for me- assume my opinions are valid and this idea is good, so I’m going to needle the hell out of you until you figure out what it is you’re really trying to say. I like natural conversation with Copilot because it will correct all my assumptions with links I can bookmark if they turn out to be credible. 98% of the time, it’s right on the money. However, I still have to go through the sources to make sure the information was compiled correctly. If Copilot can’t keep the characters straight on something as important as Skyrim, why do you think I would trust it with the American government?

I also do not think AI can generate prose like any human, much less me. This is because AI is unfailingly positive, and having worked in restaurants I’m just as much of a fucking delight as you’d imagine.

Plus, reading the books just makes it more fun to write my own. I like being able to synthesize ideas, to take dry things and make them a little less so.

This was brought home to me literally and figuratively by an Uber driver who took me to the pharmacy the other day. I told him his car was so neat it looked like something from The Detail Geek.

And then it hits me.

The praise music. You don’t even really have to hear the lyrics, it’s a whole mood. This dude bruh is hideously uncomfortable because I have an ambiguous gender. I have boobs, but I also have a fade and just talked about auto care. It’s my whole problem with Evangelicals. They live in such fear of the secular world that it’s agreeing to accept a whole different reality just to get through an Uber ride. I was going to ask him to change the station, but then I thought, “no. Leave it. It will only confuse him more if I turn out to know something.”

My combination of musical experiences means that I know a little bit about every genre….. and as little about praise music as possible. It’s just not my bag. It’s designed to be repetitive and mindless. I want Bach and Widor and Mozart and Rutter, not whatever the fuck that is…… Classical music makes people smarter, and it has worked for hundreds and hundreds of years. I am not advocating for any type of libretto, only a better score. Your brain expands when you are trying to absorb great works. You feel accomplishment at learning a melody you didn’t think you could. Hymns tell a story (granted, some better than others), praise choruses are a reflection of our 24-hour news cycle. We don’t have anything complex, so we’re just going to pick one phrase and repeat it a thousand times.

In my experience, the less you think about chord progression, the less you think about life in complicated terms at all. What is helping my well-being currently is this infusion of power back to the people. Not only is Harris doing well, J.D. Vance is already calling for Joe Biden to step down. He can’t back out, but he already knows the odds on beating a sitting president. He’s said so much shit about Trump that I just applaud.

Then, he took it all back. Now, he’s seeing up close and personally that he was right in a way that was only conjecture before. It had to be sobering for him to read the note from Mike Pence to Joe Biden thanking him for his service to the country and having the GOP faithful come out of the woodworks to say “suck it, traitor.”

I will admit that I have not read “Hillbilly Elegy,” but it has been on my TBR list since it came out. I don’t think I’m the only Democrat who can say this; non-fiction about life in Appalachia tends to appeal to a wide spectrum, and he was exploring something important.

J.D. Vance was exploring the effects of opioids on Appalachia, and was unapologetic about calling Trump one, too. But now I realize that he, like a lot of people, stopped having problems with Trump once he got power of his own.

Trump will either face consequences or he won’t. If he wins, he certainly won’t. Even if he loses, he will figure out a way to make it look like he’s won….. and I mean that literally. There will be no heartwarming tale about how he learned something along the way.

My health and well-being mostly center on my communication skills. I’m precise with language and have self-esteem, which means that I often come off as a know-it-all. I have checked with me and I’m an idiot. The way people treat me makes me feel like crap about myself, so I’m trying to learn how to communicate more effectively…. while also knowing that in some situations things are still impossible because I can only control what I say, not what other people hear.

So, as far as my health? I’m fine. I should probably take some Tylenol, though.

As for my well being, what I am learning is that I am happier communicating less and focusing on facts and historical figures that excite me. Relationships come in seasons, and the one with myself is in full bloom.