2:15pm May 25, 2014

Have you ever…?

Have you ever been so incapable of multitasking that you can’t even do what most people see as one thing, all at once? Because what they see as one thing, is actually many different little things that all have to be coordinated?

Like, you can’t just write. First, you have to come up with the words. And you can’t come up with the words while you have any control over your body. So you do all the coming up with words while you are curled in a ball, immobile, or running all over the house because your body’s movements are not under your control, and you come up with all those words, and then commit them to memory, while you have no ability to write them down. Then when you have the ability to move your hands and write them down (with or without physical help to do that), then you have to pray to God that those words you wrote in your head will actually be there at the same time that you have enough control over your hands to write. Often, they’re not there. Because it is not just about coming up with the words and then writing them. You also have to recall the words, and recalling the words is an activity in and of itself. It can only happen at the right times, in the right situations.

And people assume that if you can write eloquently, then writing must be easier for you than it is for them. The reality can be quite different. It may be that you have a better ability than them to come up with eloquent language. But they may find it easier than you to come up with language at all. These are not skills that exist on a single continuum from easy to hard. These are dozens of skills that all seem to be the same skill, but are actually quite different. And different people have different levels of each different skill.

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