Today is World Mental Health day.
So really the question is… how are you today?
Today is World Mental Health day.
So really the question is… how are you today?
Pull up a sandbag, I’ll make a brew and I’ll see if I can find some Smiths songs on Spotify
‘Living the dream’
Happy Cake Day!
I just noticed that
Danke
& hoping to wake up……
Genuinely I can say today that I’m not just okay but that I’m good. Not just surviving, but thriving.
I’m eating well, I’m sleeping well, I’m exercising well, I’m growing my skills in another language, I’m surrounded by a good team and I’m making new friends from around the world. I’m also planning a few more escapes both through the Andes and along the Amazon, giving me things to look forwards to in the near future.
Things are slowly (and thus sustainably) moving in the right direction for me.
I miss my parkruns (particularly the social aspect) a lot, but otherwise everything is well.
I’m planning a trip to Tesco, and I am hoping I escape with the minimum amount of human interaction as possible
Currently I’m running low on spoons…
I thought for a moment your local purveyor of discounted ale and pub grub had shut its doors
I only found out about this recently, from a former colleague with ME. I hope you’re able to get whittling soon.
You have spoons?
Cluck me mate, im down to my last toothpick here…
The Spoon Theory is one of the dumbest analogies I’ve ever heard of: who replaces the spoons each day after the mental and physical energy thieves have taken them away from you?
The Spoon Fairies? The table waiting staff? A charitable NGO - Cuillères sans frontières? A personal spoon replenishment contracting service (discounts available)?
It would be better to pay for more preventative or responsive Spoon Policing through Spoon Taxes, or hire Spoon Security Solutions Ltd to protect the community’s spoons from theft.
In fact it’s a concept which doesn’t need an analogy: any life form on Planet Earth knows that it can only do so much activity in any given time period, and therefore paces itself for its own survival and longevity. That’s why I’m sitting writing this in my armchair at the end of the day, and not lying exhausted and close to death somewhere outside.
My kattz definitely aren’t running out of spoons either, but they are more sensible than their staff when it comes to conserving energy.
Its a simple metaphore.
You really need a little bit of calm and appreciation that others exist!
Chill out.
Most normal people will wake up with a certain and consistant number of spoons, or forks, or pink flying saucers (what ever currency you choose).
For those with cronic illness, mental health issues, etc, they dont know how many they will wake up with.
“In the last two days i woke up with 16… today, i only had 5”
now try and do a 16 spoon day…
Analogies, similes and metaphors are only good if they are logical: they must make sense within the statement. Spoons don’t replenish themselves either on a table or within one’s mind and body (for the latter place is naturally where I go to look for a spoon when I’m making a cup of tea, of course) without some kind of outside agency - Spoon Fairies, waiting staff, charities etc.
The same logic applies to any other unit of measure: none are any use unless they self-replenish overnight, in order to be run down the next day.
The Spoon Theory is one of those pop culture theories that aren’t tested against logic and are accepted as some kind of philosophical breakthrough precisely because it doesn’t make sense, so therefore it must be wisdom.
And so we all go along with it. I might be a mentally ill person who wonders where the spoons come from every night. I might have mental health problems, but still have common sense:
“Where do the spoons come from every night?”
“Oh, they just appear each morning in greater or lesser numbers.”
“How do they appear?”
“Look, it’s just a metaphor used to explain why you have problems getting through some days. You can use your favourite thing if you want, like strawberries or cats or something. They just appear, alright?”
In fact strawberries might be a better unit of measure: at least they replenish themselves by their own agency, and disappear if one eats them all at once. Plus they are a foodstuff, which provides energy to the human body. The Strawberry Theory starts here!
Mate, I wouldn’t try to explain the Spoon Theory to a class of Air Cadets without expecting one of them to ask: “Where do the spoons come from?”
But then it was a child who noticed that The Emperor Had No Clothes. Adults tend to go along with illogical theories. You can generally get them to believe anything if nearly all if them want to play the Grey Man, and not speak up if they have doubts in their mind for fear of going against the majority.
I wouldn’t expect that question- I would expect “what about sporks” “do chop sticks count?”
& “is this why police officers & teachers are always so stressed as people keep “liberating” their spoons?”
As you say allegory & metaphor works best if it’s tailored to the audience so you use multiple different allegories so you can apply it differently to each unique individual & circumstance.
A bit like mental health really….
Congratulations.
On a topic about World Mental Health Day, you’ve managed to demonstrate a way to denigrate mental health and chronic illness.
If it makes sense or is useful to someone and isn’t harmful, it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t make sense to you. What effect do you think you have by applying an over critical analysis to something that someone experiencing low MH or a chronic illness finds useful or comforting?
Do you think it’s helpful?