Doting on Dickens

You may not know this, but people with "Fibromyalgia" suffer from something call "Fibro Fog", which sounds quite nice, and fluffy...like being on a cloud for a mini vacation, or wandering around in those brightly lite tunnels towards the shiny star of death...but it's not at all like that!...I would describe it as having a white hood put over your head and being asked to negotiate walking on the edge of the Great Wall of China, while sysimultaneously being asked to solve math equations every 5 seconds and quote Shakespeare every 5th step throughout this ordeal.  Since I may not know you, this could be a completely the easiest thing in the world for you to do, and therefore I congratulate you forthwith and relay this as my ineptitude alone!  If there are any other readers who might find the above activity a bit taxing, well I tell you in all honesty that when I am in a so called "fibro fog" I try not to leave the house, as it can be dangerous and humiliating.  I try to stick to the humiliating because people say that "laughter" is the best medicine, and sharing laughter can be contagious and therefore good for everyone.  Of course this requires a certain reckless abandon, and knowing that a trip to one of my village stores has the potential to become "the joke of the week" and I don't mind that.  My girls at Swan's and Lainee's take extremely good care of me, and help to guide me through the muddle which is my brain on fog.  They help me with my keys (where are they) my purchases (you got milk yesterday!) my change ( come and get your cash back)...If it weren't for these great women I would be broke;have 20 bags of milk in the fridge;and be wandering around the village looking for my car!!!!  I couldn't get that help in Brockville, they would look at me strangely and wonder how I escaped the local Psych hospital, and whether they should call someone to pick me up!!  All that aside, I promise you something about "Dickens", so here I go! When one is in a "fibro Fog" there are few things one can do effectively, and indeed safely, until it subsides. Watching complicated movies with more than 2 characters is frustrating, and reading (which I have always loved) is also a challenge.  But a few years ago, a publishing company came out with these pretty little matching books of the classics (not all the classics unfortunately) and I picked up a couple of titles to read when the fog cleared!  When I picked up Great Expectations and began to read the Prologue by Dickens, I was hooked!  I remember going to the doctors office, and I always bring a book because you spend 45 min minimum waiting in the reception area, followed by another 20 - 30 minutes in the office.  Anyway, I was engrossed in Great Expectations when my doctor walked in and asked if I was being forced to read this book!!!! I tried to share all the wonders of Dickens writing, and his wonderful wit and humour, but he was not buying it!  The funny thing is that yes, sometimes I can't read, but the language and the flow of this brilliant writer overtakes me, and I'm lulled out of any resistance, and into a linguistic dance.  I laugh out loud, because he is so funny, and the depths of the characters are such that you cannot forget them, which happens for me in regular writing and I have to go back and re read to figure out who this character is!!! Exhausting".   I'm just beginning "little Doritt" and looking forward to every minute of it!  So I just want to tell all my other fellow sufferers of FF to pick up Nicholas Nicholby, or Great Expectations and give Dickens a try!