In the Aftermath of Lego Land

Carlsbad, CA
7:10 p.m.

There is a general level of functioning for the person with MS (aka brain damage) that is brittle to begin with, and quickly breaks down under the stress of demands that exceed the capacities of the baseline level.

One functions, in other words, within the parameters of a mild confusion--which is at least consistent and reliable--but when one or two additional matters of taxation are admixed with the preexisting dough of mentation, the whole structure wobbles, becomes Jell-O like. It droops and slouches, drunkenly weaves and stumbles.

Given the incompetence of the descriptions above, it will be readily clear that I am at this very moment suffering the debilitating effects of just such an overload.

Take the everyday matter of communication for example. Multiply the number of people with whom one is called upon to communicate by 5. A difficult enough task on its own, but doable.

Now make 2 of the 5 a father in law and a mother in law. Things begin to become more difficult. The wires are becoming dangerously hot.

Now then, cause 3 of the 5 multipliers to speak to you in a foreign language with which you are only marginally familiar, and to speak it very rapidly at that.

The result is silly putty. Capability has been far exceeded, function takes a total nosedive. It is not a matter of simply returning to a safe baseline, for the gaskets have blown, the pot has boiled over, the legs have been cut from under the whole notion of functionality on any level more sublime than that of the eel or the potato bug.

The only hope now lies in the chance to recharge. To sleep. To find a bed. Anyone's bed. Anywhere. And to sleep ... sleep ... sleep.