My wife told me that she had recently seen an episode of Super Nanny where the nanny, Jo Frost, had to familiarize a mother with her son’s world. Her son, you see, suffered under attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). She handed the mother a magazine article and asked her to read it. Once she started, Jo had all the other kids come into the room and begin making messes. Next, the nanny turned up the TV to its loudest setting. A few minutes later, Jo came into the room and asked her what the article was about. The mom, understandably, had no clue about the article’s content. Jo said, “that’s exactly what your son has to deal with every day.”

In addition to my physical limitations, I have been “gifted” with the diagnosis of ADHD. Couple that with a visual learning disorder, and you have a kid that barely made it through school. The visual disorder was difficult to detect. I could read just like every other student, but I couldn’t retain much of the information I had read. So, for example, if we had a test and the review had been a reading assignment or a study guide, I would have trouble passing that test. On the other hand, if we would review in class with a question and answer format for some other review involving my ears rather than my eyes, I found it easy to get a an A. We didn’t really catch on to my learning disability until I was in seventh grade. Once we discovered and corrected the problem, all of my grades improved significantly.

Likewise, my ADHD changed a lot as I continued to work on improving my concentration. I learned, with quite a bit of difficulty, how to direct my mind through little exercises as I looked to extend my attention span. As a result, most people don’t realize they’re dealing with a former student who was once recommended for special education classes.

I still have the ability to allow my brain the freedom it needs. For example, my wife asked me earlier tonight what was on my mind. That was a big mistake! I quickly rattled off four or five things completely unrelated to each other. For example, I was wondering how to build a racing sled using belt sanders and how to distribute the power safely but effectively. In the next moment, I was contemplating a new dessert topping: chocolate syrup with chocolate sprinkles already in the syrup. At almost the same time, however, I was wondering if the director of the remake version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory made the right decision by using Deep Roy as the Oompa-Loompa or if they should have used Verne Troyer or a digitally-reduced Jim Carrey. In the end, I concluded that the casting for this role was probably correct in the first place. I guess I like the Jimmy Durante look about him.

All of this was enough to set my wife’s head spinning. She obviously was expecting me to make a logical graduation from one thought to another. That doesn’t always happen. I channel surf my brain sometimes as an alternative to simply letting it wander. Speaking of, if we had an “invisible fence” to keep our mind from wandering, what would that look like?

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