RE: no, but seriously
Tim O'Connor (tim@roughdraft.org)
Mon, 06 Apr 1998 02:07:23 -0400
> Tim, I've enjoyed reading the exchange. It's Monday morning here.
> Given the amount of INTENSE curiosity about you the person, it's been
> extremely interesting to read so much "personal" Tim.
Well .... I hasten to add that not all the facts were about me -- I just
find that I listen to people and their stories and can't help it when they
demand to be shared.... The personal me is still a confusion to me! I
don't know about the other people here, but when you spend part of your day
trying to make a fictional world come to life on paper, it's hard to say
what is you and what is of your imagination!
> (In my eyes, you
> are a near saint in the way you pastoral care this list.) I often
> wondered how you could be patience personified.
It's an illusion, I think. I just go to the gym more intensely, or on
longer walks. I am not so patient except that this crazy list has become
the kind of community to me that some mental patients find in their heads,
keeping them company. So, I do what I can to coddle and challenge it,
because it has its own strange sort of meaning to me.
> I rejoined the list some time ago and came upon Scottie. My confession -
> he sounded so much like my very favourite therapist that I thought they
> were the same person. I hear Paul when I read Scottie. And they both
> have that very English way of being so all knowing whilst simultaneously
> being so tongue in cheek.
Two or three things, much for Scottie:
One: Scottie -- it may be that you and I crossed paths, you joining and me
just doing list housekeeping, when you introduced yourself. I didn't know
(or consider) what you do, except that you have strong opinions and are,
ah, articulate in a way that itself should serve as a good lesson to anyone
who reads you; so when you said "my patients," I had, and almost still
have, no idea of what you meant.
Two: if you are a therapist/doctor/analyst, I still value your comments,
even when we disagreed. (But in cheerful disagreement.)
And bizarre three: having been raised in an Irish house by a rather
republican father, I learned to always miss what Lesley has called "that
very English way of being so all knowing whilst simultaneously being so
tongue in cheek." It takes a lot to unlearn the voice that was in your
head when you grew up. (Just ask Sylvia Plath's spirit.)
> I don't think you could have possibly offended Scottie.
> Now go and take the dogs for a walk.
Good about Scottie (I hope). But bad regarding the dogs. They and I had a
long, heart-to-heart about this, and they decided their first choice is to
go live with Scottie, and if that doesn't work out, they want to
impersonate dingos and move to Oz. As they are dachshunds, they are too
stubborn to be swayed.
It's late and I must be loopy. Riverrun!
--tim