20071104 - I’ve been thinking - Nineteen Minutes

Nineteen Minutes

I just finished reading Nineteen Minutes; A Novel by Jodi Picoult. It got me thinking about bullies; both kids and adults, and what I define as behaving like a bully. I don’t remember any bullies growing up but I am not sure if that is because there weren’t any or I just don’t remember them. I am an army brat and changed schools almost every year. I can’t even imagine knowing the same kids all through school the way the kids in this story did. In addition to that I had Bright’s Disease (Acute Glumerial (SP?) Nephritis) when I was very young and was left with high blood pressure. At that time the only medicine used to treat High blood pressure was Phenobarbital (I think a sleeping pill now and not used at all for BP). At any rate I was an out-of-it kid living a lot in my head. In this book the kids were pretty unsophisticated with a lot of physical bullying even through highschool. Adults on the other hand don’t have to resort to physical bullying. If I say to someone that I don’t find something funny and ask them to please stop, and they continue to ‘tease’ saying that I need to get over it, am I displaying a thin skin or lack of a sense of humor or are they bullying me? I guess it all depends. At least adults don’t shoot up schools and (as I think about it) the adult doing the shooting is more likely the adult bully than the adult victim (or is that really true?)

Changing the subject. This week Quail Creek had two fairs; A Wellness fair with all kinds of exhibits promoting health, including one table put on by the Quail Creek Diabetes Education & Resources Forum (for which I am one of the 2 coordinators) and a Crafts Fair with all kinds of craft tables including one table from the Quail Creek Needleworks Club (of which I am a member) As a result I worked from 7:00am until 2:00pm on Friday, and from 9:ooam until 12:00noon on Saturday womaning tables at these fairs. It was a lot of work and a lot of fun. I met a lot of people. My table at the Wellness Fair was near the table doing Arterial ultrasounds (boy was he busy) so I was able to sneak over and have my neck ultrsounded. Not good, but I knew that. He drew me a picture of my plaque for my doc. I got a lot of ideas at the Craft Fair. I was especially excited to learn about Quail Creek glass fusing. I am going to have to join up with that group. I love the look of their products.