I recently finished a memoir called Loud in the House of Myself: Memoir of a Strange Girl (cover photo included below):
I snagged the following description from Amazon.com:
"Stacy Pershall grew up as an overly intelligent, depressed, deeply strange girl in Prairie Grove, Arkansas, population 1,000. From her days as a thirteen-year-old Jesus freak through her eventual diagnosis of bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder, this spirited memoir chronicles Pershall’s journey through hell and her struggle with the mental health care system."
I absolutely thank my lucky stars and the Universe and all of the deities that my lifetime struggles did not include the ones that she endured, but what drew me to the memoir is that she reconciled her ordeals through acquiring tattoos. In addition to Bipolar Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder, she also struggled with various eating disorders. Her ultimate goal is to have her entire body tattooed so that she can live comfortably in said body. I'm not sure that would be my method of dealing, but I thoroughly enjoyed exploring her thought process while reading the book.
Throughout the memoir, she kept mentioning her adoration for Sting. It occurred to me that I had not posted about Sting yet (other than when I've talked about The Police), so I figured that the timing would be right.
Another aspect of the memoir that I wanted to share is that I learned a new clever term for "death"... While working in the area of Estate Planning/Probate, of course I have encountered many euphemisms for mentioning such; however, I have never heard it referred to as "answering the bone phone"... good thing I hadn't taken a sip of my beverage while reading that phrase because I would have undoubtedly had to spit it out... that's how hard I was laughing when I came across that passage.
Lastly, many people don't know that Sting was a teacher prior to making it big in the music industry. Here's a reference to such from Wikipedia:
"After being a bus conductor, building labourer and tax officer, he attended Northern Counties College of Education (now Northumbria University) from 1971 to 1974 and qualified as a teacher. He taught at St Paul's First School in Cramlington for two years."
So in addition to "Fortress Around Your Heart", I am also including "Love Is the Seventh Wave" because it opens with a classroom setting and has a very childlike and visually pleasing aesthetic... Enjoy!
Until next time...
XOXOXO
Anastasia
Under the ruins of a walled city
Crumbling towers in beams of yellow light
No flags of truce, no cries of pity
The siege guns had been pounding through the night
It took a day to build the city
We walked through its streets in the afternoon
As I returned across the fields I'd known
I recognized the walls that I once made
I had to stop in my tracks for fear
Of walking on the mines I'd laid
And if I've built this fortress around your heart
Encircled you in trenches and barbed wire
Then let me build a bridge
For I cannot fill the chasm
And let me set the battlements on fire
Then I went off to fight some battle
That I'd invented inside my head
Away so long for years and years
You probably thought, or even wished that I was dead
While the armies all are sleeping
Beneath the tattered flag we'd made
I had to stop in my tracks for fear
Of walking on the mines I'd laid
And if I've built this fortress around your heart
Encircled you in trenches and barbed wire
Then let me build a bridge
For I cannot fill the chasm
And let me set the battlements on fire
This prison has now become your home
A sentence you seem prepared to pay
It took a day to build the city
We walked through its streets in the afternoon
As I returned across the lands I'd known
I recognized the fields where I'd once played
I had to stop in my tracks for fear
Of walking on the mines I'd laid
And if I've built this fortress around your heart
Encircled you in trenches and barbed wire
Then let me build a bridge
For I cannot fill the chasm
And let me set the battlements on fire
