For a few days every month, my mind enters a state of disorder that makes communication, not to mention living, difficult. No doubt, they were days like these on which, once upon a time, countless male doctors diagnosed countless female patients with Hysteria. For my part, I do not feel particularly hysterical. I just feel scatterbrained, dulled by self-doubt, weary, whiny and generally on shaky ground.

Now, before someone goes and posts a comment along the lines of “Too much information!” or “Whiny is right!” I will quickly note that I do have a reason for mentioning all this, and that is to explain any lapses you may encounter in the following paragraphs. It is because, well, these days are happening now. This week. And, as I noted above, in these days I have trouble concentrating. I forget what I am doing right in the middle of doing it. Thoughts interrupt thoughts and –

What I mean to say is that these are the days when I prefer to use unbreakable plastic cups instead ceramic or glass. The days when I often find myself saying, “It’s a good thing I have a neck, else I might misplace my head.” These are the days when I am more capable than usual of feeling empathy toward moody teenagers and less capable than usual of putting together a post for my blog that takes just one idea and runs with it. In other words: the old rule of essay writing – Tell them what you are going to say, then say it, then tell them what you said – is excruciatingly difficult to follow in these days; so, in a moment of middle-aged wisdom, I have given up the struggle and decided to go with a more meandering post. In other words: consider yourself warned. Please.

First thing first: the blog. I was surprised and encouraged by the number of comments I got both on the blog and via email. Thank you, thank you. For not just taking time out to read, but to comment as well! I never expected it.

Second thing: speaking of sex (in a biological sense), I was interested to find that the majority of people who commented or emailed me about the blog were women. I haven’t done a count, but I would feel safe saying that if I didn’t send the announcement to an equal number of men and women, women did not outnumber the men by much. So, what was it? I asked my husband about it (my husband being the resident man), but he just scratched his head and looked puzzled. (Is now a good time to mention that my husband did not comment on the blog until I asked him if he’d seen it, a few days after I sent the email about it?) Then he said, “Maybe it says something about the different ways women and men communicate/respond/express themselves?”

“You think?” I said.

“I don’t know,” he said.

“Me neither,” said I. Then, “What about the content? Do you think it says something about what I wrote appealing more to women than to men?”

“That wouldn’t be my guess,” he said.

“Hmm,” I said.

“Ab-bwah!” said the hobbit.

Anyone else?

Speaking of majorities and minorities: how about that presidential campaign going on in my native country, the US of A? Darned exciting, I say. I mean, surely I was not the only one who had no interest in sitting through a raced characterized by a sense of inevitability. No? And the polls, the polls! Finally they have been exposed as the silly wastes of time they are! And that’s not all I am excited about. There is also the fact that this is the first presidential campaign in the history of my voting life in which I am genuinely excited about the candidates. And the fact that, so far, there has been more talk about policy and candidates’ visions for the country then about fellow candidates. There is also the fact that the surprises in Iowa and New Hampshire have restored my faith in the power of the vote, not to mention the American voter. As far as I am concerned, the results of the last week stand as persuasive evidence that my fellow citizens are thinking people. I try hard not to be an American-bashing American, but I will be the first to admit: the last presidential election made this effort an especially strenuous one. This week though, it’s as easy as finding the hobbit hilarious.

Less easy this week is feeling hopeful about humanity generally. The news coming out of Kenya is especially unsettling, but Kenya is hardly the only place experiencing devastating political violence. I didn’t mention this in my New Year’s post, but that novel I put in a box two weeks ago was set in a fictional military dictatorship and involved assassinations of opposition leaders, voting fraud and the murders of mostly poor people who served as scapegoats for the party in power. It was based on events that happened in the 1930s, in the Dominican Republic, but it could easily have been based on events occurring right now in, well, you name it – Kenya, Congo, Sudan, Chechnya… (as well as, albeit less morbidly, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, Uzbekistan, China, Russia, Iran, Turkey… ) Seriously, one of the reasons the book got away from me was that every time I glanced at a newspaper there was another, only slightly-modified version of my story staring back at me, causing me to rethink, recast, rewrite. I tell you, there are days when the constancy of the human tendency to abuse power is enough to make me want to shut out the world entirely. To go shopping, become a hedonist, live only for today and book one of those pampering days in a spa that smells of citrus and lavender. Add to all that facts about extreme poverty in the US, discrimination in France so powerful it inspires young people to burn cars, Neo-Nazism and violent nationalism on the rise worldwide, the conditions in detention centers throughout Europe and the US for illegal immigrants, most of whom have already been through hell to get where they are, teenagers being murdered on the streets of London — and things do seem pretty grim.

(Up goes the mood. Down goes the mood. See what I mean about “these days”?)

(Actually, while I’m being parenthetical, and on a downer, and writing about voter fraud, I might as well take this opportunity to note that earlier this week I received an email highlighting a convincing New York Times magazine article about the potential problems the US faces as many states move to electronic voting. In response, I signed a MoveOn.com petition requesting congress to pass an emergency paper ballots bill. Maybe you want to check it out?)

But, all is not bad. Indeed, there is plenty of good news, too. There is that refreshingly substantial US presidential campaign I was writing about. And, the war crimes trial of Liberia’s Charles Taylor started this week in the Hague, so justice just might well be served there. An invention called Plumpy’nut is making it possible to treat malnourished kids more effectively than ever before. A friend of mine who spent the entirety of her twenties as a political prisoner in Turkey is finally feeling safe and secure enough in London to write a memoir that is funny, wise, compassionate and beautiful. The hobbit is learning to walk and the amazing Skype is making it possible for faraway friends and family to watch him do it. “These days” are passing. Dilbert continues to be odd. Snoopy continues to be funny. My husband’s carbon footprint this month was about as big as the hobbit’s new shoe (a vast improvement). Google maps showed me the tiny village in Siberia where a new friend grew up. Hearing aids are more powerful than they have ever been before and just the other day, while reading an article about Somalia (Somalia being one of the most dire places on the planet), I came across a story about a group of young Somali refugees living in Kenya who have formed a music group called Waayaha Cusub (New Era). Ah, the power of art to uplift. Check out their website. It’s great stuff.

And that’s it for this week. Thanks for muddling through.