I’m given to some thought patterns and behaviors that could be considered “extra” I suppose. I believe if I went through the public school system today instead of 40 years ago I’d likely get some kind of spectrum diagnosis.

Here’s an example, my inability to follow the crowd kept me out of the advanced placement classes. I couldn’t focus enough on the present so I’d be off in my own world and also listening to the lecture. The teachers didn’t like that I could pay attention while goofing off. I never did their ridiculous homework or studied and I got A’s and B’s on every test or quiz. But stupid homework and note taking was like 40% of my grade so I’d get 60% or lower.

Why should I study and take notes on what I know? It’s wasting time. You said it in class, I remembered it (sometimes forever), I passed the test. I know the curriculum down. I’m failing. Why?
What is objective here? To teach me or to program and break my spirit? Because it feels like the latter.

They wouldn’t have me in those classes but I beat all their hot shot nerds in the school geography bee because I looked at the maps in the textbook a couple times. I heard once the moon was a quarter of a million miles away that’s burned in there. The fact that you use such a specific distance is so fulfilling to me because it validates me carrying around the mostly useless bit of information for 35 years.

The moon is getting further away each year, by approximately 4cm. That’s a thing I can’t un know.
The median distance between earth and sun is 93 million miles. The moon is made of the exact same material as earth’s crust. A small iron nickel planetoid hit our young earth. It sheared the crust off and sent it into orbit where it coalesced into our moon. The iron planetoid sank into the mantle and formed the core of our planet. Both the core/mantle interaction and the moon are absolutely necessary for the advent of life.

The iron core with the the liquid mantle churning around it creates a very strong magnetic field. These fields emanate from the poles. (Poles like polarity, not something you raise a flag on). Without this the planet would be continuously sterilized by the radiation from the sun which is after all a self contained nuclear fusion reactor. This is evidenced in the auroras seen in the north and southern polar regions. Mars had a weak one and the solar winds eroded it and then the water disappeared.

The moon creates the tides. If life began in water like the popular theory. The moon was the centrifugal conductor.

I never even read a book on any of this. I heard it once and I got it locked down because it’s interesting to me…but if we met somewhere and you introduced yourself I would forget your name within minutes of that conversation ending. But I’d remember a lot of detail about what you said.

Like I said I’m extra

I had to come back. This one pulled me back. It's inspired another poem one that was prompted by recent events and this magnificent poem.

Much love J x