On Withdrawal

All of my readers know that I have a relatively active mind. I´´m generally going on at least three tracks at once. Processing information and formulating thoughts. So for me not having anythingto occupy my mind is a form of torture. My mind goes around in circles over and over again. I can´t stop it.

I have a number of contol mechanisms that help me counteract this propensity when I am at home. I read a lot. I read the economist every week, National Review every two weeks, The Tucson Weekly every week, National Geographic and Christianity Today every month, most of what is posted on National Review Online and nytimes.com every day, as well as 3-4 books a week when I am not working. Besides that I do work around the house, build things, talk to friends etc. All of these things help me occupy a part of my mind so that I can remain focused. It narrows me down to one free train of thought so that I can focus on one thing at a time.

Here I don´t have any books or magazines and only sporadic access to the internet, I don´t have access to any tools and all my conversations have to be in Spanish except those with my wife (who is the only one keeping me sane).

Up until today we´ve been busy, moving from activity to activity so I didn´t notice...but today I´ve been going crazy. Today after lunch everybody went to sleep, but I couldn´t sleep. I slept a lot last night and my mind won´t stop. And my journal was in the room where Adrienne was sleeping...ditto the only book I brought. So I just sat there and drank like three cups of coffee (trust me it didn´t help) and I couldn´t focus on any line of thought and so I sat like a Zombie allowing my mind to run in circles around itself.

Welcome to the mind of David