Comments on Heaven in My Foot: Follow Your Dreams . . . To Hell

Priscilla, you write with such great insight. May...

2012-01-09T01:46:23.565-05:00

Priscilla, you write with such great insight. May we all have greater freedom from "the Want and Will Philosophy of Life" and receive what is given with grace and hope (and a few grumpy days thrown in for good measure). Peace to you...

Priscilla- What a wonderful piece! You are so art...

2010-11-08T16:53:07.724-05:00

Priscilla-

What a wonderful piece! You are so articulate.
I've been sick with CFS 33 years. I've spent many of them confined to bed and too weak to brush my teeth or bathe or even lie propped up. I am currently bedridden.

My highschool class is planning their 40th reunion now via Facebook. Even if I were well enough to go, what would I say to all these people who lived out their lives, if not their dreams? "While you were worried about your jobs and careers; your families; your cars, houses, clothes, looks, I was worried about whether or not someone would bring me my next meal in bed, brush my teeth for me or get my mail from my mailbox? I was worried about whether or not I would have the strength to walk the 15 feet to the toilet and make it back to bed?

Your reference to Laura Hillebrand really hit a nerve with me because my own mother reprimanded me by holding her up as an example! If Laura could do it, then why couldn't I?

By the way, I recently tested positive for XMRV.

Dear Anonymous, "....but i must give you cre...

2010-11-05T14:57:07.495-04:00

Dear Anonymous,

"....but i must give you credit for inspiring me to attempt to draw again!"

Hooray! Have you read my post on starting cartooning? If not, it may give an additional boost:

http://www.heaveninmyfoot.com/2010/05/start-cartooning.html

my very best to you,
hope to hear from you more,

Priscilla

A wonderful essay...shared sentiments...but also i...

2010-11-05T13:01:28.025-04:00

A wonderful essay...shared sentiments...but also important to me...are your drawings - as well as your writing and razor sharp wit. I am now an official FAN (which i can prove as I've linked your works to my FB page...bragging about your talent!) I "found" you and your coterie of stick-folk by way of my friend jerry...a perfect fit. I used to be an artist when i was alive (cartoons were my first love)...and reading/viewing yours afforded me the first good belly laughs I've had in a long while! I laughed out loud. OUT LOUD!...when i first saw them...then when I glanced down to the bottom of the page i was reading...and was greeted by MORE (your clever joke about fainting) - i laughed out loud again (and so did my husband!...who, unlike me, is HARD to please). do you realise what that means to those of us living in solitude? (even those of us surrounded by husbands...and Pomeranians etc) The importance of what you're doing?(I often feel like i've been condemned to solitary confinement...for a crime i didnt commit!) I now look forward to you...as i do to my one tiny cup of java in the morning...so keep it coming (for my sake)

To say i (and my "career") have been sidelined by severe ME/cfs is an understatement (good days=housebound/bad ones=bed)....but i must give you credit for inspiring me to attempt to draw again! something clicked in my poor addled brain when i started to read your funnies...and i allowed myself to confront the deep sorrow i experience daily, for the loss of all things artistic. so...next step will be a digital drawing pad (one i can use while propped up in my bed, i hope)...and one thats compatible with interference by assorted Pomeranians, pill keepers, fuzzy blankets, wooley socks, water bottles...oh, i could go on and on...but you get the drift. so a big thank you for the inspiration to try again.
btw...i also have the toes/feet/legs/hands pain you talk about (i call mine "the meat-grinder" - an exquisite pain...a devilish sort of unrelenting, unremitting pain...that at times defies description!)...i have small fiber neuropathy (SFN)..damage caused by the chronic viruses of ME/cfs.
regards....jackie
ME/cfs since birth (59 yrs), long term, high dose antivirals...soon: ARV's.
DOC: Dr.John Chia

Priscilla, I am becoming one of those bitter disa...

2010-09-07T14:38:00.897-04:00

Priscilla,

I am becoming one of those bitter disabled people who is sometimes envious of the healthy, the talented, of those who are still brave(?) enough to follow their dreams, and of those whose meds/lifestyle has not made them fat and hideous.
BUT I thank you for a needed smack of perspective because most days, I CAN get out of bed and use the stairs.

Looking forward to more words and drawings when you return from your sabbatical,
Debi

P.S. ~ We share an erstwhile angel by the name of ...

2010-04-28T05:00:08.261-04:00

P.S. ~ We share an erstwhile angel by the name of Alan, so I feel in your secondhand company often.

You offer quite the honest, enlivening suite of id...

2010-04-28T04:58:44.527-04:00

You offer quite the honest, enlivening suite of ideas. Thank you for feeling.

"Don’t count on rapid sainthood to save you f...

2009-12-25T02:32:54.194-05:00

"Don’t count on rapid sainthood to save you from despair."

I'm coming late to this, but thanks for the post, and thanks especially for that line.

I'm not sick. I needed to hear that anyway. I suspect a lot of people do.

Priscilla, Outstanding post. I really enjoyed read...

2008-12-15T17:38:00.000-05:00

Priscilla, Outstanding post. I really enjoyed reading it and I found the subject compelling particularly from your vantage point.

The line that resonated most with me (aside from the black kids in that book, which you couldn't be more right about), was the part about changing your mindset from 'getting what you want to receiving what is given.' That was a process I went through as well. I also had to take it a small step further(or backward maybe) by also being happy about what is received. Not satisfied or complacent about it, but to receive what is given for what it's truly worth on an emotional level.

I'm succeeding and failing so much everyday that I no longer keep track, but I can say that I'm generally happy on a day to day basis. In my world, that's success. Geez, I'm babbling.

Thanks for a wonderful, insightful post Priscilla. You rock. :)

Thank you very much, Barney. I'm pleased to see t...

2008-10-02T08:27:00.000-04:00

Thank you very much, Barney. I'm pleased to see this piece is still getting an occasional reader because it is one of my favorites.

best,

Priscilla

I've only just read this piece - where have I been...

2008-09-30T04:29:00.000-04:00

I've only just read this piece - where have I been all your life? - and I wanted to add my little bit of praise and thanks for your essay. It is, as others have said, really good, really thought-provoking, honest. I'm so glad you've taken a poke at the horrendous uber-feminism of the children's book and at the kinds of narratives that deny the value of so many lives and render so many people invisible.

Thank you.

I started this essay after looking at old yearbook...

2008-04-23T11:48:00.000-04:00

I started this essay after looking at old yearbooks for the first time in a long time. In some ways the people in those yearbooks are more real to me than anybody, as so many of them were part of my world for a long time in a kind of elemental way, like wind or sunlight. In other ways it seems they must have existed only in my imagination, like all those memories were put there artificially to give me the feeling that I lived a past. But now comes Facebook and the odd experience of cyber-reunion. Amazingly, most of those people still exist. And there they are, with faces I can usually recognize and lives I know nothing about. And I’m surprised by how clear people are to me, and how memories that seemed at first not to be there at all surface and are as vivid as the ones I never misplaced. So when I first saw Donna Davison’s name in my yearbook (I’m going to have to be more careful about using real names), I wasn’t sure I knew who she was. And now I can hear her voice in my head, quite distinctly; although, I still don’t know what has become of her.

Your writing is beautiful and poignant. I work as...

2008-03-26T19:21:00.000-04:00

Your writing is beautiful and poignant. I work as a chaplain in a children's hospital, and I appreciate the glimpse into many of their home lives and futures. I pray it will make me a more empathetic pastoral presence to them.

I am with you on the doubly endowed, body-building pacifist. And I resent having my feminist credentials questioned for it.

excellent. I repeat: excellent. I agree with every...

2008-02-25T10:37:00.000-05:00

excellent. I repeat: excellent. I agree with every word.
(I came here by following the link from mole; will definitely come again.)

priscilla,

i visited your bahai site some t...

2008-01-25T12:35:00.000-05:00

priscilla,

i visited your bahai site some time ago, and come to this blog independently from annalog. you're all over the web :)

this is an excellent piece, and touches a point i have thought about for some time. my only push-back would be that talking about exceptions is another way of talking about heroes. hero-talk is in my view necessary to maintain and inculcate ideals. where we go wrong is when we collapse the distinction between ideals and everyday reality. i should always have ideals to look toward and heroes to look up to, but i would be lying if i said everybody is a winner and everybody is a hero. that's what happens with "i can be anything you can be".

as for your personal reflections on physical limitations, milton offers a much more sublime (and, ironically, useful) view than our children's books today:

ON HIS BLINDNESS
John Milton

When I consider how my light is spent
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodg'd with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest he returning chide,
"Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?"
I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies: "God doth not need
Either man's work or his own gifts: who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed
And post o'er land and ocean without rest:
They also serve who only stand and wait."

Priscilla,

This is really good. I mean rea...

2007-11-29T09:00:00.000-05:00

Priscilla,

This is really good. I mean really good. Have you ever thought of trying to get it published? You've found an angle, or rather several of them, which contribute to make this a very compelling piece of writing.

First, there's issue of people with disabilities, all the public examples of triumph over adversity vs. the reality of accepting very real limits. Next there's the whole 70's feminism, 'girls can do anything' idea: what a simple way to view the world that was! And then, finally, there's the whole bogus 'American dream' myth that determination to 'succeed' is your only limit. You touch on all of these big themes, and I wouldn't be surprised to read this on Salon.com or in Harper's.

But on a more personal, more human level, I also want to say that I'm moved by your story. To some extent, every life is a disappointment, but you've obviously had to deal with more of it than most of us. From the high hopes of your school years to realizing that there were real limits you couldn't overcome, there must have been an incredible adjustment. The gap between dream and reality, part of every life, must have seemed especially broad in yours.

Brendan