And now for something completely different, the view of Sari’s world

The View From Sari’s World has always been a tightrope walk. Each post is designed to balance my personal views with facts so that the end result doesn’t lean too far academically or too far anecdotally. I do this in part because I favor non-fiction writers who are able to humanize even the driest of subjects (Barrows’ Painless Algebra comes to mind) and in part to connect with my readers so as to relate with like-minded individuals. Not that there is anything wrong with blogs that lean one way or another; many of the blogs I follow don’t attempt to walk the same tightrope as I.

The View From Sari’s World was started as a way of strengthening my writing skills (check) as well as establishing my “voice” in the academic world (I’m still working on this). It has always been my goal to use my blog site as a vehicle in which I am moved in new directions. Over the last two years my writing has received some attention from the academic world but not as much as I had hoped, and obviously the fault lies squarely on my shoulders. This is one reason I’ve started to post less often about what is going on in my life and or my views. Let’s face it, most blog posts that are all about the author tend to be self-serving and boring to the casual reader. I tend to avoid these blogs. And yes, I see the irony because of the title of my blog, but the name itself is a bit of irony or a play one words. The View From Sari’s World sounds so much better than, Sari’s View of the World (or lately, Sari’s View of Shakespeare’s World).

But today, instead of a view of the world at large, I am going to talk about Sari’s world, at least a small part of it and what you can expect in the coming weeks.

Friends and long time readers are aware that my health has been in decline for some time. I was born with a heart defect known as tetralogy of fallot. Though it is now repairable with life-saving surgeries, it does continue to take its toll on the hearts of those afflicted with this defect as they age. I am learning this the hard way. I am writing this post one week after having my heart pacemaker replaced with an advanced model that can “adjust” its pacing whenever my heart goes out of its normal rhythm. This new model comes with an app that allows me to take a “snapshot” of my pacing and send it via the cloud to my physician. This allows closer monitoring without constant trips to the doctor’s office. Oh the miracles of modern medicine!

One of the effects tetralogy has on an aging heart is that the blood becomes low on oxygen. This leads to low energy and fuzzy thinking; a combination that is not contusive to writing has been the main reason my posts of late have been sporadic and short. At first I blamed my inability to stay awake past 6pm to stress, but over the last few months, when my physical abilities started to decline along with my thinking, it became clear there was more going on than stress or even mild depression. Now that I have this new pacemaker it is obvious that my health issue was heart and blood flow related. One week out and already my friends are noting a vast improvement in my energy levels and thinking skills. I am going out on an optimistic limb and hope that soon I will be back to my old self. For you my friends this means I will be back to writing on a regular basis; walking at least a bi-weekly tightrope for your enjoyment. But please excuse me if for the next few weeks my posts continue to be short (though I promise not sporadic). Once I am confident I can manage to write coherent sentences with little grammatical damage to my reputation, you will see a blog that leans towards the academic side and shift focus to the view of Shakespeare’s world and his continued influence on ours. After all, his world is a hell of a lot more interesting than mine.

So that’s the view of my world of late. How have you all been?

Author: sarij

I'm a writer, lifelong bibliophile ,and researcher. I hold a Bachelors in Humanities & History and a Master's in Humanities. When I'm not reading or talking about Shakespeare or history, you can usually find me in the garden discussing science or politics with my cat. View all posts by sarij