Diabetes Blog Week 2015 Day Six: Favourites and Motivations
If you have been blogging for a while, what is your favorite
sentence or blogpost that you have ever written? Is it diabetes related
or just life related? If you are a new blogger and don't have a favorite
yet, tell us what motivated you to start sharing your story by writing a
blog? (Thank you Laddie of Test
Guess and Go for suggesting this topic.)
Writing is very important to me. It’s a passion of mine.
When I was younger, everyone thought I was going to write the Great Canadian
Play. That may never happen, but I love getting to “write what I know” on this
blog, and in the process, connect with other people in some way. Here are a few
favourite moments, for me, in three categories.
“Popular”
My second-most read post of all time was one I almost
deleted, because I wrote it in a very emotional space, and I was worried it
would be controversial. “Liar” is about all the things, people, and
institutions that lie to people with diabetes throughout our lives. It sparked
a lot of discussion, was shared by many people and organizations, and even made
it to a conference slide (which I found out about after it was posted on the
Internet; it would have been nice to be informed or asked, thanks).
“So when I hear that test strips can be +/- 20% in accuracy (a
10 could be 12, or 8) and are often worse, it makes me sad. Because it's a lie, and we're already dealing with so much misinformation, so
many lies, that we'd like something to be true. Something that, instead, takes
the best of us, the life from us–blood is life–and turns it into another lie. Something that comes from the heart, which is
supposed to (but often fails to) be the truest thing of all.” "Cards Against Diabetes" is my most popular post because I
think it’s a ton of fun, and it touches a nerve. Some people are turning
against the game as becoming tiresome, offense for the sake of offense, but I
think it works well in the context of diabetes – what’s more offensive than
that? It’s nice to share our experiences, and make mocking matchups. One day it
would be nice to play with a full deck (that’s how diabetes makes me feel,
too).
Pop-Culture
I do a lot of pop culture referencing in relation to
diabetes (see my Star Trek rant from Thursday). One of my favourite pop-culture
posts is my comparison of the diabetes life to the life and mission of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (my favourite show of all time). It’s a constant, valiant,
thankless and unpaid fight, and all diabetes has to do is have one good day.
“As diabetics, we walk the fine line between secretly believing
we're immortal and knowing that we've got this expiration date. In a way, we
have more conscious control over what our bodies are doing than anyone else; in
another way, we have much less, our bodies being essentially out of control
with so many factors to deal with. Buffy's super strong and quick, but
she has to deal with all sorts of violently unpredictable outside forces that
most people don't.”
Another, “Latitude and Longitude,” takes an episode of the
West Wing, where Sam has his worldview destroyed, and explores how things you
thought were solid, like latitude and longitude, can turn into constantly
moving goalposts.
“Now, we place great trust in our devices. We
try to believe that they will never fail us. We place our lives in the hands of
plastic and metal and batteries and medical research, sure that they will work;
sure that they will always deliver some sort of base measure of performance.
Like latitude and longitude. We know this isn't true. Plastic fails. Metal
fails. Batteries are spent. People get sick. People die. We take a lot on
faith. Like latitude and longitude, which are invisible.”
Finally, my favourite kids’ book, The Phantom Tollbooth,
lends itself perfectly to the emotional journey of diabetes.
D-Blog Week
We all need a little impetus to get writing, and D-Blog Week
is so amazing for providing that every year. Some of my favourite D-Blog Week
posts, to round out the list:
“Diabetes Hero”: All about the people who mean a lot to me.
It was nice to thank everyone, and to hope for the future.
"Everybody who has touched my diabetic life is
my diabetes hero. It's trite but it's true. Everybody with diabetes is my
diabetes hero. If you asked someone to say or draw the first thing that comes
to mind when you say "hero," it would probably be a fighter of some
kind. A war hero; a soldier. A firefighter. And that's what we all are. We
fight every day against odds that sometimes seem insurmountable; in a way, they
are. The odds are literally insurmountable. We can't win. The best we can do is
try, and see another day the best we can. Bravery is not the absence of fear;
it's having the courage to fight in spite of that fear. The definition of hero
seems to be a person who fights even when he or she knows he or she can't win,
because it's right. That's what we do."
“Mantras and More” won a couple of D-blog awards, and I’m so
happy it resonated with people.
Each drop of blood is a
drop in the ocean
Each high and low is a wave
in the sea
Each day you live
represents forward motion
Each day you make it the
best it can be.
"Change The World (Sweat The Small Stuff)” was about the things that seem small, but
really mean a lot. The post meant a lot to me.
“The refrain is constantly there. The small
stuff is the heartbeat pumping the lifeblood of diabetes: the fear inherent in
every move we make. The small stuff is the big stuff. The big stuff is the
small stuff. We are made of atoms, and capillaries, and the tiniest prickles on
the skin. When we complain about the small stuff, we are saying: we are here.
We are saying: we are scared. We are saying: listen.”
Hope this wasn’t too self-indulgent! It’s fun to walk down
memory lane.
I'm the wrong generation to have watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but thanks for the introduction. And I've never played Cards Against Humanity. Frankly I don't know if I even read The Phantom Tollbooth. But I do know diabetes and all of your posts were fantastic:-)
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