Almost a year ago, a friend of mine made a comment about being "out of spoons." My mind immediately went to the cartoon, "The Tick," and his battle cry, "SPOON!" I made a comment based upon my initial interpretation. My friend seemed perplexed and that started a fairly long conversation about what her statement meant. After talking to her, I looked up "The Spoon Theory" online and read it through. I can't tell you how many times I have tried to explain how it feels to have Crohn's Disease. The issue always came in the translation -- feelings are just too subjective.
What made this theory so ingenious was that it took the explanation out of the realm of the mind and made it tangible. I could tell a friend or an acquaintance that the pain I feel is like a 50 ton wrecking ball with spikes inside my gut, but unless that person experienced the same pain they would just never understand. Now all I have to do is use this story as a basis for my own explanation.
I tend to use money, interest, and late fees (calculated by the minute) when I try to explain about myself now -- a person's eyes get very big when I start talking about compound interest. It is amazing how many people assume pain and diseases are linear in their effects. I wish my experiences were linear, but the pain and issues are always exponential and compound. I would say that on a good day I have about a dollar's worth of pennies. Every task has a cost. I can choose to borrow against that cost and pay later. The issue comes with the compound interest and the late fees. I have to make that choice to spend the penny now, pay two cents in a couple of minutes, pay fifteen cents in ten minutes, etc.
Yeah...definitely a good read for someone that needs help in trying to explain their situation.
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