Elsewhere

For awhile, I did not understand how my grandmother and her roommate could sit in the nursing home in their wheelchairs all day long without any entertainment....no television, no radio, nothing. Then I thought that maybe being in their mental state was like being in the kind of daze you have when you first wake up. It's where you are not completely focused on anything, nothing is terribly important in that moment, and you don't really feel particularly good or bad. In the mornings when I first wake up, I don't care if I just lay there and stare at the ceiling or if the television is on. I feel completely content to be devoid of external stimulation. Perhaps that is why my grandmother expresses no interest in being entertained. At least that is the way that I like to think about it.