Getting Your Numbers Out of the Way for Math Class

As I discussed in previous posts (here and here), Meredith's numbers are characters.  This is a form of synesthesia called Ordinal Linguistic Personification, or OLP.  From what I've heard from other synesthetes, OLP can sometimes make math harder in the sense that the numbers are distracting to the task at hand.  For example, some numbers might not get along, so it is uncomfortable to add them together. Or maybe the numbers are in the middle of a cooking competition and are divided up into teams (as once was the case for Meredith); so when two numbers who are on different teams need to be added together, it doesn't make sense.

Recently, however, we've noticed that Meredith seems to be having a much easier time in math. When asking Meredith about this, she said that she finally figured a way to get her number characters out of the way so that they don't distract her anymore.  Before she goes into math class, Merebith and Dogot line up all the numbers on one of those "hold-a-ring walking ropes" used in preschools and walk the numbers into a closet, where they remain until class is over!  Apparently the numbers are pretty gullible and easy to manipulate.  When math class is over, all the numbers pile out of the closet and usually most of them are gasping for fresh air since one of the numbers has a little problem with gas...    

Use the "Kariokie-Dokie" to Remember Song Lyrics

I've written before about how Meredith loves music and has an uncanny memory for song lyrics. Today, Meredith explained that she is able to do this because she designed a system in her mind to help her remember the lyrics. All she has to do is head on over to the "Kariokie-Dokie!" 

The Kariokie-Dokie is a karaoke place where Merebith loves to go sing. The Kariokie-Dokie is a bit like a theatre with a big screen and seating. Songs play on the screen with the lyrics, just like you see at any typical karaoke bar. The background visuals on the screen are the synesthetic colors and patterns that Meredith sees when she hears that particular song.

Merebith and her friends love to have karaoke competitions. Merebith has won three karaoke trophies already! Of course, Dogot always loses competitions because he sings in his robot-like voice. The security ants like to participate as well.   

Meredith explained that it takes about three times listening to a song to get the lyrics down--the first time to get the tune and two more times to get all the lyrics. Once she's got them, they are permanently in the Kariokie-Dokie system and she can refer to them anytime she wants to. Pretty soon, however, she has the lyrics committed to memory and doesn't need to look at the karaoke screen anymore.

Meredith and I always talk about the irony that she can remember all the lyrics to songs even when words are not her friend in other settings. Now, however, it makes sense because when she is singing, she is accessing a dynamic, mental visual system to "see" the words.  And the fact that after a period of time she no longer needs to refer to the karaoke screen is testament that processing information (even words) through a visual thinking circuit is what ultimately solidifies information into knowledge and long-term memory for her and other highly visual thinkers

Processing the Litter from the Day

I met someone recently who told me she sees colors when she closes her eyes to go to sleep at night. I hadn't heard this before and it sounded like some sort of synesthesia, so I decided to ask Meredith if she experienced the same thing. She told me that she doesn't see colors, but she does do something else when she goes to bed that amazes me and highlights beautifully how she processes information visually.

Meredith said that when she goes to sleep at night, she will review her day from beginning to end and then backwards again, sometimes three or four times in a row. When she is doing that, she files away things that she didn't get a chance to file away earlier in the day. She explained that if things don't get filed away, it is very unnerving and gives her a lot of anxiety. In fact, she explained that her little mental assistant, Merebith, goes around Brainsburg (the city in which she lives) like a janitor picking up all the litter from the day. The "litter" is the bits and pieces of information that she needs to file. Once Merebith collects all the litter, she files it away in the Treasure of Files.

After hearing this, I asked another very visual thinker I know whether she did the same thing at night. She said that she reviews her day starting from the beginning and, like Meredith, files information away that she didn't get to earlier. She agreed that unless everything is filed away, she gets very anxious. For her, she calls this process "clearing the mechanism."

Numbers as People

I recently wrote a post about Math as Characters.  As a follow-up, I wanted to post a picture that Meredith drew me a few months ago...I just found it.  It shows her numbers zero through nine as she thinks of them, including their color.  Perceiving numbers, days or the week, or other sequential items as people is called Ordinal-Linguistic Personification, or OLP.  It is a subtype of synesthesia.

I will try to describe her numbers' personalities the best I can here.  She could probably write pages about each number since they have many independent stories.  For one example, once they had a cooking competition among themselves that lasted for a few weeks.  They divided up into groups and they each had one type of food to work with.  Merebith and Dogot were the judges...

Perceiving numbers, days or the week, or other sequential items as people is called Ordinal-Linguistic Personification, or OLP.  It is a subtype of synesthesia.

1 - God Boy  Since he is "number one" or "numero uno" as they say, he is pretty full of himself.  He has a halo and wings.

2 - Confused Girl  She is confused because she is made up of both curves and straight lines.  She's kind of dumb.

3 - Partyboy Boy  Since he's made of curves, he's really fun and hyper.

4 - Normal Girl  She is holding a snail that is branded with the number four.  All of her snails are branded with the number four because they are like her "herd."  She's pretty average because she is made of straight lines.

5 - Cool Boy  He's cool because he has a "cool" curve.

6 - Lonely Girl  She is lonely without her number 1 because she likes to be with other people and her favorite number is 16.  She is in a wheelchair because she is clumsy without her partner (number 1).

7 - Innocent Boy You can tell he is innocent from his little propeller hat and ice cream cone.

8 - Twin Boys  They are named twin boys because they are conjoined twins. The smaller brother sits on top of the bigger brother. Their symbol is Gemini.

9 - Alien Girl Alien Girl is a tom-boy. She is always CRAZY!!!* She annoys everybody.

0 - Fun Boy He is hyper and likes being happy.


*Meredith wrote that as you can tell by the use of color!

Math in Characters

I finally got around to reading Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet.  Daniel is a well-known autistic savant and synesthete--a savant unique in his abilities to describe to others how he thinks.  In his book, he describes how numbers have always been a very important part of his life.  He explains that he experiences each number as having shape, color, emotion, and personality.  He also explained that he found algebra difficult because for him, letters do not elicit the synesthetic response as numbers. 

Because I know Meredith's numbers are characters (see this post), I asked her if they caused her any difficulty with math problems.  She told me, chuckling, that when doing subtraction one of the numbers is "taken away" to "juvie" (i.e., juvenile jail).

I know that algebra tends to be difficult for visual thinkers and asked her what happens when letters are introduced to math problems.  She said that her letters are characters, too.  The letter a, for instance, is a girl (in the shape of "A") wearing a fancy A-line dress.  The letter x is a criminal. 

She said that actually, Merebith is doing diagnostics on an algebra equation at the moment.  She is trying to figure out how Meredith solved a really long algebra equation when she had trouble solving a very short one.  Chuckling again, Meredith said that Merebith and Dogot are playing good cop, bad cop with the numbers in the equation.  She said it's like an old black and white detective movie where the police question the suspects: "Where were you at 12:00 yesterday..."

Merebith is shining a bright light on the suspects.  They first questioned number two, who is actually a cloud.  But because he could only sputter out thunder and lightening trying to answer their questions, they let him go.  Dogot is wearing the police hat he took out from his extensive hat collection and is using this really funny, deep robot talk, trying hard to act like a bad cop.

So I suppose it is safe to say that because Meredith's numbers are characters and each equation has a storyline factors into why Meredith often finds learning math frustrating, despite her teacher's response that she has a lot of potential in math.  I imagine that Meredith is trying to reconcile how math is "supposed to work" with how Merebith diagnoses how math works.

I'm really looking forward to reading Daniel Tammet's newest book: Embracing the Wide Sky.

A "Place" in My Heart

Meredith's new friendship is still going strong with her new friend (who I'll call Sarah) who is so similar to her in thinking style.  One night while I was tucking her in, I asked Meredith if Sarah was still as special as she was a few months ago when they really got to know each other.  Meredith responded, "Mom, she has a special place in my heart.  No, really...she literally has an apartment in my heart!" 

Meredith explained that when she and Sarah found out that they were so similar and really enjoyed each other as friends, Merebith got two new things: a pot of gold (since she hit the jackpot) and a little Sarah who could play with Merebith.  Sarah got a new apartment in Meredith's heart that has a bedroom, a kitchen, and a bathroom.  Apparently, Sarah doesn't need a big place because she is mostly busy playing with Merebith!

Swimming in Your Thoughts

Meredith just started swimming with a new swim team. She has always loved swimming, but it really has to be the right environment. For instance, the last team we joined practiced in an enormous indoor swim complex that was exceptionally loud and chaotic, which meant the coaches also yelled a lot. Not good. Then Meredith swam with a summer league where she enjoyed practice at the outdoor pool, but detested the meets which were loud, long, chaotic, unbearably hot...you get the picture.

So, she is so enjoying her new arrangement. There are maybe 10 kids at the most at her practices, swim meets are optional, it is at an outdoor, heated pool, and the coach is a very sweet mannered young woman. I'm shocked that she is actually wanting to practice three times per week because she complained so much in the past about going. Obviously the difference is the sensory environment. The...sensory...environment. Nine times out of ten the sensory environment is what stresses Meredith.

And that brings me to the point of swimming as an attractive sport for people like Meredith--highly visual thinkers who have weaker auditory systems (i.e., Mavericks). Swimming quiets down all the noise so the auditory system isn't working in overdrive. It eliminates visual distractions so the visual system isn't engaged in it's perpetual scanning mode. The elimination of the auditory and visual distractions allows you to enter that state-of-mind where you can freely wander through your thoughts (without being accussed of daydreaming). The physical aspect probably helps in engaging the right brain as well.  You don't usually get too cold or too hot.  Really, it is quite ideal for this breed.

I once was talking to my massage therapist during a massage (why do I always do that?!) and she clearly was a Maverick. She told me that her work place environment is perfect because it is dark, there is soft music, and she is doing something physical--all of which really allowed her mind to wander into places she enjoyed going to. She appeared to be so fullfilled with her work.


So, as always is the case, Merebith is following along with Meredith and has also started back with swimming, but she has her own Olympic sized pool. Guess who her coach is? Michael Phelps! Apparently he struts into practice wearing all eight of his gold medals around his neck.  Merebith loves swimming.

Dogot, meanwhile, has his own smaller pool filled with oil. His favorite thing to do is to lie on his back and spit mouthfuls of the oil up into the air. Can't you just picture it? Of course when he gets out, he is covered in oil. No problem!  He just rolls over to this huge blow-dryer looking machine and when he turns it on, it blows all the oil right off. How convenient!

String Around Her Finger

Meredith was dosing off on the couch and snapped up and said, "Mom!  I just saw a ribbon on Merebith's finger and I remembered I have something to tell you.  I know where the missing remote control is."

Of course I had to ask more about this and Meredith explained that Merebith right now has about eight ribbons around her fingers to remind her of various things.  I asked her what colors they were.  (The ribbon about the remote control was tie-dye blue.)  I asked her how she knew what each color meant and she said that she has a chart in the files that tells her.

Whew!  From the outside looking in, that seems like a very convoluted way to remember things.  But on the other hand, I have no method whatsoever.  Maybe I'll give it a try.

Can You Turn Your Brain Off?

I wish I had the ability to "turn off" my brain like my daughter.  Here is the story on how I discovered how she turns her brain off.

I picked Meredith up from swim practice and she was very excited to tell me that she was able to hold her breath for a whole length of the pool for the first time.  Her Dad, being a former swimmer, taught her some techniques to help her accomplish this goal.  On the way home, she said, "It's really easy if you just put your mind to it...Actually, you just turn your mind off."

Of course I then had to ask her if Merebith went to sleep when she turned her mind off.  Meredith said that actually, Merebith is given a tranquilizer to make her faint.  For Dogot, she presses his reset button because he'll be out of it for awhile.  I asked Meredith who was the one to give Merebith the tranquilizer shot.  She she that it was one of the "hands" with the Mickey Mouse gloves on it.  Meredith explained that basically she controls these mechanical hands when she needs to do something to Merebith or Dogot.  Ah, now I remember.  She talked about a hand coming out to tickle Merebith to give her the feeling of guilt.  This is one of the many mechanical hands that she uses in her mind.

Back to tranquilizing Merebith...  Meredith said that she laughs at Merebith when she is sleeping after being shot with the tranquilizer because she mumbles things like, "Dogot...Dogot, don't touch...the computer," and "What...should..I wear?"

Dogot, on the other hand, mumbles other words while he is sleeping: "Bark...bark...bark."  I don't mean bark like "ruff, ruff," I mean he actually says the word, "bark," because as you know, he is a robot after all.

Taken to Heart

Our family was watching TV and a person was talking about how he needed a heart transplant.  Meredith asked me if you are still the same person if you get an organ transplant.  I put two and two together and asked her, "Do you think you would lose all your feelings if you got a new heart?"  "Yes," she said, quite seriously.  There is that literal, pictorial mind again.  Sweet and sad at the same time that she wondered about that.  I was wondering how she pictured love residing in her heart.  Did she see literal pictures of feelings sitting in her heart like she sees Merebith in her brain?  I got the chance to ask her that yesterday and she thought about it for a minute and responded, "Mom, Merebith is only in my brain--she hasn't left Brainsburg [that's where Merebith lives and works] and gone other places in my body."

We had a lot of fun thinking about how Merebith could take some travels around Meredith's body.  Maybe she could jump in a gondola and travel around on the blood, visiting different organs.  But then Meredith said that every time she moved, Merebith would be tossed around against her body.  I guess this doesn't happen when Meredith is in her brain, because she isn't in Meredith's literal brain...she's really just in her mind. 

Look to Mental Pictures to Judge Emotional States

Yesterday, Meredith had a bad day and came home crying saying that she was depressed.  She even missed her soccer game because of it.  The problem was that I couldn't pinpoint the source of her emotions. It's not as simple as asking her what is wrong, because often she can't find a way to express her emotions and asking her sometimes just makes her that more upset. Usually she will show that there is a problem by crying, refusing to do anything I ask her to do, getting upset with any little inquiry or suggestion I make trying to help her, and being very over reactive to any minor stress. In these situations, the only thing that I have learned to do is to give her lots of space, remove any stresses, and provide opportunities to refuel her right brain like drawing, watching TV, listening to music, or playing with her dolls.

So, she watched lots of TV, drew me a picture, sang and danced in her room, and had lots of good snacks.  I didn't insist she go to her soccer game, do any chores, and made sure her little brother stayed far away.  After dinner, she came into my room and we were able to talk rationally about what was bothering her.  She had mentioned a few times last week that she was struggling with some math concepts--the relationships between fractions, decimals, and percents in particular--so I thought this could be it...especially since I knew these are generally difficult concepts for a visual thinker like Meredith to grasp.  And sure enough, that was it. 

Meredith said that she just doesn't get the concepts and can't process what her teaching is saying.  She has always struggled with these concepts in math.  She says that all she hears is "Blah, blah, blah."  Not in a disrespectful way at all--just that she literally can't process what she is hearing; it doesn't mean anything to her.

Over the last few months, I have learned a really good way to judge how Meredith is feeling or what problem she is experiencing by asking one simple question: "What's Merebith doing?"  Meredith told me that during math class last week, Merebith was in a coma being kept alive by a machine.  And because Merebith is Meredith's "Control Center," (according to Meredith) no learning was happening...the factory was closed essentially.  That gave me a pretty good idea about how math was going for her lately and what her emotional state was.  Merebith always displays an exaggerated version of how Meredith is feeling--she's like a cartoon character in that way.  This exaggeration is really helpful because it leaves me little doubt as to what Meredith is feeling!

I know that Meredith really enjoys geometry (hello again visual-spatial strength!) and so as a contrast, I asked her what Merebith does when she is doing geometry.  Meredith told me excitedly that Merebith wears a T-Shirt that has a lot of colorful shapes all over it and the words, "Math Rocks!"  She also wears a visor and has a pencil tucked behind her ear.  Usually, Merebith is furiously doing math on her paper because she loves it.

Continuing with this topic, I asked her if Merebith acts in any peculiar ways if she is having trouble or having a lot of success in other subjects at school.  The one thing she told me was that in Language Arts, a lot of the time Merebith has a frog stuck in her throat.  Merebith gets a frog stuck in her throat when Meredith is trying to figure out what a particular figure of speech means (Meredith understood the irony that Merebith is acting out a figure of speech during these times).  Until Meredith understands the figure of speech in question, Merebith continues to choke and Dogot uses the Heimlich Maneuver (in his robotic nature) to try to dislodge the frog.  Once Meredith understands what the figure of speech means, Dogot successfully dislodges the frog from Meredith's throat and it goes flying across the room and hits a wall--splat! 

At least I know that Meredith understands irony...

Mental Color Mixing

Meredith drew me this very simplified version of her "Colorator 3000x."  The Colorator 3000x is a color mixer that Meredith uses in her mind.  Apparently there are many, many more colors than the four that are shown in her picture, and they are "true" colors--not like how sometimes the color on a marker doesn't match the actual color it writes on paper, according to Meredith anyway.

The Colorator 3000x is pretty straightforward.  You press the colors that you want to mix, and then pull the lever.  The spoon will automatically stir the colors.

This is all good, but I couldn't figure out when Meredith would use this machine.  After asking her that question a couple of times, she told me that she uses it when she learns new words.  "Like 'important,'" she tells me.  "It's purple.  I have a color and a picture for every word."  This was news to me--I didn't know she had a color for every word.  (The picture for the word "important," by the way, is Benjamin Franklin signing the Declaration of Independence...she doesn't know why, but it makes sense to me!)

Then Meredith told me, "And there's a manual, too.  One day, I was so bored, I made all the possible color combinations and wrote them down in a manual for Merebith.  It will say 'fushia plus teal equals...'  It took forever." 

Who knows how many color combinations she must have made because colors are such a big part of her life.  She just told me there are 8-9,000 different combinations in the manual.  Could that really be possible?!?

Knock, Knock...It's Time To Breathe!

You may remember from my earlier post that Meredith is enjoying swimming on a team again.  Last week, we were talking in the car on the way home from practice once again about how you can really lose yourself in your thoughts when you're swimming.  Meredith told me that sometimes she gets so much into her own world when she's swimming that she forgets to take a breath.  No problem--Merebith always comes to her rescue!  When it's time for some oxygen, apparently Merebith will knock on Meredith's head (from the inside) all the while grabbing her throat looking like an exaggerated cartoon character who is gasping for air.  That just makes me giggle.

Watching T.V. Shows...In Your Mind

"Do you know what I do in school when I'm done with my work?" Meredith asked me.  "I watch SpongeBob."  Now, I had just learned about how Meredith thought in pictures and in movie snipets, so I had a feeling she didn't mean she actually got to watch a cartoon at school.  She explained that she can close her eyes and watch SpongeBob in her mind whenever she wants.  Hard to believe, for me anyway.  I later learned that she also has Merebith edit the cartoons to take the commercials out.  It really interests me to think that she can do this--that she can repackage her visual memories, let alone watch t.v. shows in her mind.

When I was working with Dr. Florance, she told me that she had a client who once told her that on Saturday nights, he would make some popcorn, settle down in an easy chair, and watch a movie...in his mind!  I wonder if those people who seem to remember every movie reference have this ability as well...I certainly don't!

It is hard for me to imagine how one does that so I had to take Meredith's word for it.  But one time not too long ago, I was able to witness for myself that she can do this.  Meredith had wanted to listen to some CDs in her room, so we got a CD player from Goodwill and found some old CDs from when she was younger.  The first CD we put in was a Disney Princess CD.  For some reason that I can't remember, Meredith was upset at that time and was rolling around the floor in distress, as happens when she is really stressed out about something.  Then suddenly, she stopped, closed her eyes, and started moving her finger in the air in concert with the music.  At the same time, I saw that her eyes were moving under her eyelids, like when you do when you're in the rapid eye movement phase of sleep.  It became very clear to me that she was watching the Disney movie that corresponded to the music.  After a few minutes, I asked her if she was watching the movie and she said yes.  I asked her to describe what was going on and she described it in great detail, including what each character was wearing.  Seeing it for myself was quite something. 

If you have a very visual child who is upset, maybe you could try to elicit some visual memories through music like the above example.  Using visuals is a very good way to recharge the Executive Functions of a visual thinker.  Sometimes, visual thinkers can get stuck in a loop of sorts, repeating the same thing over and over or simply getting in a place they can't find a way out of.  This is the verbal thinking pathway experiencing a glitch. 

I have had success bringing out puzzles and other visual-spatial games to help get Meredith unstuck.  One good thing to do (besides STOP talking!) is to start playing with the game you brought out and pretend like you don't know what to do with it (instead of ASKING your child for help).  For example, we have a magnetic mosaic game which comes with patterns to copy.  I started trying to make one of these patterns and purposely acted confused (without talking).  Meredith quickly jumped in to do it herself and within a few minutes, she was able to calm herself down. The hardest thing to remember is to keep quiet.  Talking just requires more energy of the child to listen, which is a function of the verbal thinking pathway.  In these situations, you want to bring the child back into her most comfortable environment--the visual environment. 

Thoughts on the Big Screen

Meredith has always had difficulty getting to sleep at night.  It is clear to me that once she settles down, all the happenings from the day occupy her mind and keep her awake.  Now, I'm sure everyone has a similar experience of reviewing their day when they head off to sleep, but if you think in pictures, I think sometimes it can be troubling.  If Meredith has seen or experienced anything remotely scary, she truly holds those images in her mind.  That's why we are beyond cautious about what Meredith watches on tv or the movies.  Her tolerance for scary images is extremely low and they will predictably come up as an issue again when she goes to sleep. 

Meredith drew me this picture to illustrate what it is like for her when she goes to sleep.  It shows Merebith and Dogot sitting in the theater seats watching Meredith's thoughts scroll across the big screen. Dogot's seat (second from the left) just has the armrests because obviously he can't sit down. "He backs in to sit down," Meredith tells me. Merebith (far left) wears 3D glasses and has a lasso to catch the thought going across the movie screen that Meredith wants to think about.  You'll see that the thoughts going across the screen in this picture include from left to right: Meredith's heartbeat, her friend Naoreen, lunch, tests, candy, our dog Zelda, and a pedicure with Naoreen.

Guilt is a Tickle

Meredith was looking at the blog the other day and I was explaining about my post Conscience Visualized. After telling me that the picture on the post looked a lot like Merebith, she quickly corrected me and said, "Mom, that's not how my conscience works." Here it comes...I knew I was about to get schooled again in how her mind works. As with many things, it's easier for Meredith to draw me a picture than to explain it in words.  Here is what she drew:

The basic gist is that when there is a decision to be made where her conscience needs to be involved, she goes to a machine (first picture) and presses either the "yes" or the "no" button. The machine transmits the signal to "Nerd," the ugly guy on the other machine (second picture). Based on which button she pushed, a green or a red light will flash for Nerd to see. If the red light flashes, then Nerd makes a big, mechanical arm come out to tickle Merebith (third picture), which gives Meredith the feeling of guilt.

Meredith said that Merebith lives a very complicated life--a very mechanical life. Wait until you learn about all of the different machines Merebith uses. I'll dedicate another post to all the machines she's told me about, but one example that I love is the empathy machine.

The empathy machine is shaped like a shoe. When Meredith wants to "get in someone else's shoes," Merebith steps onto the machine, types in the name of a person whose shoes Meredith wants to get in, and then in a Star Trek-manner, once Merebith steps in the tube she transforms into that person and can feel their feelings.  You can see how she tried to draw Merebith transforming into another person.  There was more to the story about how the information got stored and transmitted but I can't remember it all (e.g., the text that got cut off on the bottom right reads, "Idea Storage Tank").  The empathy machine is my favorite machine to date.  Don't you just love that Merebith steps into a literal shoe?!?

Brilliant Make-Believers

A recent commenter shared this story about purposefully creating a mental computer and backup filing system. Unfortunately, the commenter experienced failures with these efforts--the computer blue-screened during an exam and the little guy running the computer tripped on the cord and broke his leg during another exam, rendering him unable to access the back-up files.

I must admit that the cynical side of me thought that maybe this was a spoof of my blog (however, now I do believe the commenter is sincere). Both my husband and I had that initial cynical reaction because hearing things like this sounds totally made up. I see the same reaction on the faces of my friends when I tell them Meredith's stories. There's kind of a "Oh...Hmmm..." followed by an awkward silence. It just occurred to me, being slightly defensive thinking about those reactions, is that, News Flash--it IS made up! These mental scenes are the works of people with a gifted ability to think visually. People with amazing imaginations.

When I shared this commenter's story with my daughter, Meredith, she didn't skip a beat in responding. (She obviously hasn't had enough experience to build that cynical side!) She thought it was funny, but said that has happened to her as well. Apparently, Dogot frequently trips over computer cords. And like the commenter's little guy, Dogot once tripped and broke his wheel. Fortunately, when Dogot's parts arrive as he grows bigger, they come with spares so Merebith was able to repair his wheel.

The news to me of all of this was that Meredith even had computer files--I thought they were all paper files. She said that she got them in 2008. I wonder if that is when she first started using the computer...? And again like the commenter, she still keeps paper files for backup. Except, she said, that sometimes Dogot uses the papers to do his business. "Dogot has a business?" I asked with great curiosity. "No, not that kind of business. You know...his business...he is a dog, remember?" "Oh," I finally said. "Except that his 'business' is oil instead of pee and...you know," she said. "When that happens, the information on the page is all blacked out and you can't see anything. Good thing is, though, Merebith has a machine called a "detector" and it can detect the words through the oil and then make, like, five new copies of the paper."

I have a feeling that this blog will continue as long as I have the energy to record her stories or at least for the next few years before the teenager in her tells me to bug off, because there seems to be no end to her imagination and the scenes, machines, and characters that occupy her mind. For now, I'll just enjoy the brilliance of it all.

Memories That Are Too Real

I've been hearing different examples from Meredith lately about how she places a visual memory over top of what she sees in real time.  She says that when that happens, it is really blurry around the edges and then she sees the visual memory clearly in focus.  I think most of us probably have visual memory, but can you actually "place" that memory on top of what you're seeing in front of you? 

For example, today we were dropping my younger son off at Elementary School where Meredith used to attend.  I made a comment when we drove past the playground that she must think of her best friend everytime we passed it because they played together almost every day on that playground for six years.  She said that in fact, when she looks at this particular piece of playground equipment, she sees her and her best friend playing.  The way she described it kind of reminded me of "Wayne's World" for those of you who remember that skit from Saturday Night Live.  She thought it was funny that she could actually see herself there.

I asked her if she had other experiences like that and she said that she does.  This past year, we moved, but only two houses away.  Since we've moved, another family has moved into our old house and they have a little girl who Meredith has become friends with.  I imagined that when Meredith goes to play over at her old house, she probably has a lot of experiences like that because of her long history in that house.  Then she told me a funny story.

She said that when she was in the living room of the old house one day, she could see our old furniture there, kind of like how she could see her and her friend playing on the playground.  Except that she must have forgotten that the furniture really wasn't there anymore.  So when she went to sit down on the "virtual" couch, she actually fell on the floor.  Her friend laughed at her wondering why in the world she fell right in the middle of the floor. 

How in the world can you explain to someone what happened in that situation?  "Oh, I was just going to sit down on the couch that I saw there, but really isn't there anyore."  Makes me wonder how many times she has done things like that and I made some snarky comment to her wondering what she was up to.  And who in the world would think to ask, "Did you see something there from an old memory?"

Conscience Visualized

For more than a year I've known about Merebith and "The guy who wears khaki pants."  Meredith has described her little girl Merebith as a seperate person but basically herself.  Admittedly, thoughts of schizophrenia entered my mind, but they never really took a foothold.  I wasn't putting my head in the sand about it--it just didn't seem to fit with what I saw.  Although Merebith has her own persona, it doesn't actually seem as though she is a voice telling Meredith what to do.

It came to me the other day that Merebith is just like Meredith's conscience in visual form.  I learned from Dr. Cheri Florance how her son, who at an early age was using a completely visual way of thinking (he had no verbal skills and was diagnosed as deaf and mute), didn't have that internal voice that most people have.  In her book, "Maverick Mind," Dr. Florance explains in detail how in order to read, one has to be able to pronounce things in his mind.  For example, would you be able to know the difference when reading "chef" and "chat" if you couldn't voice the words in your mind?  From this lesson, I learned to question the concept of the internal voice in relation to visual thinking.

So, the way I see it (pardon the pun) is that perhaps Meredith at an early age had such a strong visual brain that instead of developing that little voice, she developed more of a little person.  And perhaps as she learned to speak, the little voice developed in the form of the little person talking.  We'll never likely know how it developed and I'm simply speculating here.  But what I know today is that Merebith is the vehicle by which Meredith talks to herself.

Here's one example.  As kids do, Meredith did kind of a dumb thing.  A few days ago she had gotten herself a snack and put it in a small bowl.  When she was finished, apparently she was playing with the bowl, holding it on her mouth by sucking it.  Admit it, you probably did this before.  As with most things, however, Meredith did it to the extreme and ended up breaking blood vessels just below her bottom lip.  Now she has a bruise there that looks like she has a soul patch--it's just a lovely look on a young girl.

The point of the story is that I asked Meredith at some point during the day if she ever argues with Merebith and she said yes and that in fact, she's mad at Merebith because for the last three days she has been rolling on the floor laughing and pointing at Meredith's chin.  Can't you just picture that?  If you, yourself, gave yourself a big bruise on your chin, wouldn't you give yourself a hard time just like Merebith?

"And, We're Renovating!"

One evening Meredith asked me to help her study for a test she was having the next day. As often happens, I could see the stress building and building as we started. Meredith kept complaining of a headache. Finally after it was clear we were getting little to no return for our efforts, I told Meredith (in all seriousness) that she probably had a headache because Merebith was running all over her brain trying to get the files she needed. Without skipping a beat, Meredith responded with gusto, "Yeah, and we're renovating."


Renovating? I wasn't expecting that. "What do you mean you're renovating?" I asked. "Mom, whenever I get smarter I have to make more room for my files," she said as if this was basic information I should already know. She explained that everything was a mess, that all the files were on the floor, and that a new area was being constructed. "That's a lot of work for Merebith...does she do that all by herself?" I asked.  She responded with new information: "Mom...all the characters that I've ever drawn make up the construction crew. Even that first person I ever drew in preschool--the one with the head and the legs coming straight off of it with no body."

Wow...Meredith must have drawn thousands of characters over the years. She's always adopting new ways to draw hairstyles, clothes, shoes... That's pretty amazing. Once again I had to digest this new information. I asked where Merebith slept while all this was going on. "Oh, she goes to her house. The Treasure of Files is just where she works." I followed up with, "What's Merebith's house like?" imagining the treasure trove that must be. Meredith explained that it is a really big house. "And Mom...all the artwork that I've ever made is hanging on the walls," she added with enthusiasm. Once again, I get the little shock from this new information. Like the characters, Meredith has made an abundance of artworks over the years.

Speaking of being a visual thinker, it's fun to imagine myself what Merebith's house looks like. I wonder how far my vision of Merebith's house differs from Meredith's vision. Do you make pictures in your mind of things that people describe to you?   I was talking to my hairstylist and the owner of the hair salon--imagining that they must both be very visual thinkers. The owner told me that he always has this experience of making a mental picture of what a client looks like when he is on the phone with her taking the appointment. Then he is often surprised when the client walks in the salon for the first time because she doesn't look like the picture he constructed. I would assume most people have this experience to some degree (or not?), but the people I've spoken with who are extremely visual seem to take it to a new level!

Oh, I just remembered that Meredith also said somewhere in that conversation that while Merebith is away, a security force of ants guards the Treasure of Files. She added that in emergency situations when the ants need to get the people out of the area, they yell, "Move it, move it, move it," gesturing with their hands (or legs, I suppose) to get moving on the double. I wonder where in the world the idea for army ants came from! I'll have to ask her and report back to you.