Hi. Here is Sidney. Sidney belongs in that realm of children who live along the edges not only of traditional school, but also of society. In society, where he is not safe, he would need complete, wrap-around supports to live independently. I intended to show a child who is budding with a major mental health crisis, and a teacher who is ill-equipped, even with all his certificates and years, and his credentialed team of professional providers, to protect that child from others, and others from him.
It’s very difficult to write about psychosis. You go on how your own mind works, I guess, or fails to, at times. Psychosis is terrifying to behold, and no one really knows what happens when a fine, clear thinking individual suddenly goes lost behind a cloud, everything is dislodged, the mind cannot trust itself, and starts to misfire and burn. This is just one psychosis.
It humbled me, and I have to bow before the powers that require eye witness and extensive experience caregiving sufferers. I’ve had both, and I am a story teller, but I still feel like my stab here didn’t crack the glittering geode that resides behind the rough gray rock of a mind. So all I could do was have multiple people describe and react to Sidney.
It took major surgery to gather up two former sketches about Sidney and revise them into what appears here. It’s long, 20 minutes, and cost me 72 hours of my life I will never get back!
You may not notice it but I’m telling you: I never cut bait around a juicy chance to portray the rise of the authoritarian, Maoist regime that ran the public school district. So take a listen to De’Niece Landry, my latest creation. Hideous woman. She was a riot to make up!
Thanks for reading and listening to Tales Told Out Of School.
Hotspvrre
38. Sidney