Saturday Stuff

~ beetleypete

I woke up this morning with my head full of stuff. Some days, I am left wondering where it all comes from. Memories, films, old TV shows. Snippets of decades-old conversations, faces of people that I recognise but can’t remember their names. It’s all tumbling around in my brain, like clothes in a washing machine.

I try to do things to focus on. Read a book on my Tablet, type up a couple of blog posts, and check emails. But it is to no avail, as those random thoughts and visions are refusing to go away. It is a very long time since I ever experimented with any hallucinogenic drugs, but it feels a lot like that uncontrollable experience. Perception of noise is increased, until everyday conversation and background sounds become like some sort of orchestral crescendo.

One way of coping is to try to compartmentalise all this ‘stuff’. Get it into categories, remove the ones easily dealt with, and confront the rest. Otherwise, the rest of the day is going to be lived in some strange dream-like state, looking at one thing, but seeing something else.

I am beginning to wonder if this is actually the true meaning of insanity.

61 thoughts on “Saturday Stuff”

  1. Have you seen the film Love & Mercy about Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys. I think you’d find that very interesting in the context of this. It really looks at the question of whether creativity leads to madness or vice versa.

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    1. It’s on my Amazon wish list, but I have seen a couple of documentaries about Brian’s so-called ‘creative insanity’.
      I have good days, where my mind is ordered. But last Saturday, it was like a busy beehive! 🙂
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  3. I experience variations on this all the time – though I’ve got ADHD and life is like being a dog in a yard full of squirrels most days. Sometimes I can pick out a ‘golden squirrel’ (a focus) and follow it so the brain ain’t trying to change channels on me so fast. It does get a bit cacaphonous when it spins out on overload, like a loud diner’s clatter, but it is the price of admission to my head.

    On the plus side for me, being close to retirement, I have a depth of experiences that, while more squirrels show up in the yard, more connections between them can be made and I find new ways to consider them.

    Am I insane? Are you? Maybe, but then I see insanity as on a sliding scale and sanity as undefinable as normalcy. Besides, a touch of insanity makes the world interesting.

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    1. Thanks for your thoughts, RC.
      I wonder if age is a factor, as I now find it much harder to switch off all the unwanted ‘interference’ in my mind. At least most of the thoughts are pleasant ones, or inoffensive. It makes me glad that they are not all ‘dark and black’, as that would be a lot more worrying.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  5. I think we all have days when our brains go into overload, Pete. I sometimes can’t remember the most ridiculous things or even a word that I want to use. I think it is because our brains are stuffed full of so many things we need to remember.

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  11. Nah, you’re not insane, Pete. As others have commented it’s probably because you have so many memories of the many things you’ve done, people you’ve met, places you’ve been. They’re all fighting for attention – they all want to be in your next blog post!

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    1. The mattress is quite new, Cindy, and has memory foam too. I sleep pretty well.
      It’s when I wake up that the trouble starts. 🙂
      Drinks sound good, but maybe red wine, without the umbrellas.
      Best wishes, Pete. x

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  17. Interesting you mention hallucinogenic drugs….people can get flashbacks, even years later. Always remember a very graphic story told by one of our professors to illustrate this

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    1. I do a maximum of 5-6 tags. You add them in the ‘Tags’ box on the lower right side of your editor. Each one MUST be separated by a comma, or they will become one long tag.
      As an example, for a post about dog-walking, with photos, I would add these. ‘Dogs’, ‘Pets’, ‘Weather’, ‘Ollie’, ‘Photos’.
      Some readers might be searching ‘Pets’, others ‘Photos’, so it gets a wider potential audience.
      For a short story, I usually use just three tags, ‘Fiction’, ‘Short Story’, Writing’. Some people use a great many tags, but I find that confusing.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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