About

The one who cracks up is drowning in the water in which the mystic swims. — Joseph Campbell

Here we all are living on the same planet, and breathing the same air. Yet some of us are floating and some of us are drowning. I know which one I want to be. The champion swimmer. A relaxed floater. A mystic.

But it’s not a simple task. “Life” is coming at you all the time, trying to take you down, jabbing and punching. So, as I have many times in the past, I’m going to write it out.

I’ve kept a diary since I was 13. I read the “Diary of Anne Frank.” Then I got me a little lockable book from the five-and-dime in Tuskegee, Alabama, and got started. Like Anne, I named my diary. Carrie. And except for a four-year period in college (when I could not be assured of total privacy), I’ve kept one ever since.

Since I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2012, learning to swim in a world that seems determined to drown me has become a personal mission. But the education in that skill is ongoing — all the time. So here’s a record of how I’m doing it or not doing, if that be the case.

Hopefully, I’ll be swimming soon in these choppy waters.

Phyllis Alesia Perry