October 14, 2017 PAINT IT, BLACK

The struggle. It's real. The aches and pains of getting older. These days I feel like I'm falling apart. If it's not one thing it's another--BUTT--BACK--LEG--CLOGGED EARS. What next?? Literally feel like I'm one step away from the CURB. Spending all my time with my new best friends--ICE PACK and HEATING PAD.  Trying to stay positive THOUGH.   At least I'm still moving albeit a little SLOWER these days. Woke up to a light rain this morning. ROLL OVER or get my SORRY BUTT OUT OF BED--that was the question. After considering my options for a whole 5 seconds--I  dragged  my weary body out of bed and ran.  It was actually a decent run--ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.  My gait is definitely off--but I muddled through AND I'M SO GLAD I DID. Running is my saving grace REALLY and I'd be lost without it. Today was the Hartford Marathon. Nice course with music and fun people.  I've run the 1/2 twice. GOOD TIMES. Good luck to all the runners---don't forget to have one for me in the beer garden. Maybe next year. We all need an outlet to alleviate stress and even depression and no one felt this more than Esther Greenwood in Sylvia Plath's classic The Bell Jar. 

Sadly, this novel was semi-autobiographical and mirrored  Plath's own experience with clinical depression. Esther Greenwood, the main character,  struggled with many of the issues that plagued Plath and other women of her generation. In this case, society's ideal of the white middle-class woman. Esther could not accept this fate as she felt like a prisoner--bound by unwritten rules. She felt stifled  and  eventually fell into a deep depression that she described as feeling as though she was trapped under a bell jar. As the depression worsened, Esther endured shock therapy by an unsympathetic male doctor.  After a failed suicide attempt, she finally got the help she needed after being committed to a mental institution.  There, under the care of a woman doctor,  Esther learned to live again on her own terms. This beautifully written book was Platt's only novel as she was actually a Pulitzer Prize winning poet. This classic is still being read in high schools everywhere for good reason. Pick up a copy. It's only  250 pages --or  a 4 mile run that has stood the test of time.