Enchanted World Books

Due to a variety of fun medical issues, I spent a great deal of my formative years in a fog of medication.  Although it is fair to say that this is not a blanket excuse for some markedly interesting social behavior during those years, it certainly goes a fair distance in explaining quite a few things.  My comment to a close family member in regards to the impact of this time period:  "Imagine being on a bad trip (or simply blotto) for ten years.  You remember things, but aren't sure whether some of them actually happened."

Not all of the impact of the fog was "bad." This cloud or fog of medication during my youth provided a unique opportunity to develop a very rich internal life.  Poetry, art, and all things philosophical have been a mainstay of my existence since I was around six years old.

When I'm working on analysis of a new budget, or when I'm cooking a feast for extended family, I will sometimes vacation in my rich Internal Life.  My mother recently laughed after listening to me mutter and sing to myself in the kitchen.  She shared a distant memory of me singing a song about how I would never know all the things in the world (a travesty!).  My husband Romeyn knows that I like to be left to my own devices when I'm "vacationing" like this--he's extremely Introvert Friendly!

With this in mind, my family's acquisition of the Time/Life "Enchanted World" books led to an intense obsession with fairy tales and mythology when I was young.  I loved every minute reading these books--even the ones that were super scary.  I was very, very good at "reliving" or "replaying" things in my mind (stories, experiences, music).  I would imagine myself as a fairy secreted away in a tree.  Blades of grass became huge forests in which little people sang, and danced.  I peered into "Jack in the Pulpit" flowers and imagined hiding away, vouchsafed within the plant with one petal as a tiny roof overhead.  Children today have iPods and toys that interact directly with them.  I had simple toys, my imagination, books, and the great outdoors.

The immensity of what the "Enchanted World" books provided for me during such an interesting time of my life is exactly what prevents me from donating them individually or selling them off to be read by someone else.  I've reached out to our public library and offered to donate them as a unit, to be kept and read as a group until they fall apart.

We'll see whether this is an option.  I sincerely hope so!