Prosaic Ponderings

Caretaking is something I've been thinking about more and more these days, but have been reticent to write about. I have some hangups with imposter syndrome; I feel like I shouldn't write about something if I don't have much experience with it. Something writing has done for me is it's forced me to seek honesty with myself and will often help me arrive at insights I feel are worth sharing with people because I realize I do have something to say. Since my mom got Alzheimer's, I've done two significant caretaking stints with her to give my dad a break. A friend of mine, who incidentally does some caretaking for her partner, recently said that if a topic feels hard to write about then that means it probably needs to be written about. I want to spend time engaging with this topic more so that I can connect with my dad on some level in his mostly lonely and isolating journey as a full-time caretaker.  It's been deeply unsettling watching two different people'...

I recently watched the movie Turtles All the Way Down (2024). It’s the classic teenager with things that differentiate her from her peers trying to lead a normal life story. Unlike the supernatural movies and t.v. shows I usually watch, the nature of her uniqueness is not magical but very, very natural (and relatable): anxiety and OCD. I think it struck a chord with me because 1) I’m not-so-secretly a sucker for YA movies and 2) I deal with anxiety.  Anxiety is not exactly a rare affliction in this day and age, which is why I think this movie will resonate with a wide audience. I was amused by its directness, although of course plenty of other mainstream movies I've seen have made mental illness the subject matter (Girl Interrupted, Silver Linings Playbook, Melancholia…etc). Regardless, it was an interesting choice for a plane watch.  The day after watching this, I was listening to an interview on the podcast Talk Nerdy with the author of "The Age of Magical Overthinking: ...