Sylvia's Journal

Multiple strands are coming together, centering around the brain. I may still understand little about what is going on in our brains but it is a lot more than I did only 2 years ago. It all started with a promotional video by an extraordinary woman named Judith E. Glaser, about her Conversational Intelligence™ program. That was my first introduction to how we think and how we converse with each other bring about chemical changes which then bring about other changes in how we relate to each other, the culture we create and thus our ability to rise to great heights and be creative together (or not). I enrolled in her course and saw it through to certification over a one year period. It changed everything.

I soon realized I was missing some critical information about the anatomy and functions of our brains – so I completed a 3 month Coursera course on neurobiology for lay people. That taught me something about the limbic system and the hippocampus and how our vision and hearing and speech work, and much more.

I started to listen to webinars on coaching and the brain and suddenly I found courses and webinars and books on neuroscience (for lay people) everywhere. Then I encountered the word epigenetics and could not grasp what that was all about, so I enrolled in another Coursera course on Epigenetics and paid the 49 dollars for the certificate. Not that a certificate is important to me but paying 49 dollars keeps me from dropping out when the going gets tough. It is forcing me to pass the quiz for each module.  The 7 module course is a huge stretch for me. Although I was good in chemistry in high school, I never learned about biochemistry and molecular biology. I have, miraculously, received a passing grade for the first four quizzes. Passing is the right word, no spectacular results. Some of my answers are guesses and some I really knew. My brain is working overtime. 

Axel wondered if I was actually learning anything or just studying for the tests. I actually do now understand at least something about DNA, gene expression, RNA and methylation and acetylation, long non-coding RNAs, enzymes and what not. I now know that saying ‘that’s just the way I am’ is nonsense. We are what we believe, what we eat, were we live, how our parents treated us, what we see, hear, touch and smell. This is the work of epigenetics. Which, incidentally, is also the essence of countless books and webinars that the internet algorithms now place on my path. And I reward these algorithms by buying the books, registering for the webinar, taking the courses. It’s the ultimate mimicry of how the brain works – more learning, more practice, more strands of neural fibers.

I have been admonished by some of my faithful readers to write more. Why haven’t I been writing for a month? Too busy? I think I was busier before my full time job was terminated. It’s true that the busier I was the more organized I was. So this is a reboot.

I have been kind of busy, but not accompanied by the usual discipline of writing. Since my last post about Senegal I have returned to cold and wintry Massachusetts, went on a ski trip with the grand kids, made a brief trip to North Carolina with its daffodils and flowering trees and returned home to suffer through a series of three snow storms in a row, leaving us with half a meter of snow and lots of black ice.

The grandkids took to cross country skiing with great ease and glee. Saffi’s bottom is about one foot off the ground, so falling and getting up was no big deal, a source of much giggling and laughing by all. Both she and Faro loved going fast down tracks of the little practice hills in front of the Jackson X-country ski lodge. Oma functioned as a ski lift from time to time, pulling Saffi up by her ski pole. Faro was old enough for lessons and made quick progress.

After I became a free agent I had signed us up at the Home Exchange site, a French site that helps people switch homes for a short period. We have three exchanges organized for the summer: one with a family from Breckenridge, CO (though we won’t do the exchange, getting points instead which will allow us to ‘pay’ for stays in people’s homes when they are elsewhere or their second homes); then one with a family from Scotland – we are switching homes for two weeks, and finally one with a family from Canada who will be in our house while we are in Maine. It is our very first experience having strangers stay in our home and it has led to some long overdue repairs and much decluttering. As for the latter we are getting excellent decluttering advice from the book ‘Let It Go’ by Peter Walsh (no, we didn’t find Konmari’s approach as helpful).

And so this is where we are now – the upstairs bathroom is empty (and therefore out of order) except for the bathtub. Carpenters, plumbers, painters and floor sanders are lined up, we hope, in the right succession. With this we are finally turning a bathroom with distinct 50s features (Kelly green trim, severely rusted pipes, leaks, rusted sink, plug-prone toilet) into a 21st century bathroom that is code compliant and has a fresh new look.