I think validation seems accumulable, if that made-up word makes sense.
We found a new t.v. series we love, "The Big Bang Theory". Who knows where or when it originally aired. Netflix led us to this recent find.
The cast: geeky physicists rent an apartment across the hall from a socially "normal" girl. Leonard takes the role of almost-socially normal, incredibly smart scientist. His friend Raj plays the Indian scientist, who seems entirely unable to speak to women. Howard is a sex-obsessed scientist who overcompensates for is inexperience by smothering women. Penny, the young lady across the hall, leads a "normal", happy life, sans Phd. Sheldon, he plays my favorite character of all.
Sheldon's brilliance makes him the smartest scientist of the bunch. His social ineptitude also surpasses that of his friends. Aside from his lack of social exposure which handicaps his judgement on a regular basis, he suffers from thinking of just about everything, from all perspectives, at every turn. Needless to say, each word, action, and thought comes fraught with bombardment all this thinking brings. And he shamelessly showers this wide thinking on his friends. They love him, in spite of the rain.
My smart-factor seems relatively normal. It's the barrage of multiple perspectives and perpetual thinking that connects me to the character of Sheldon. And therein lies my validation. Someone out there understands, well enough to write about it, well enough to act it out, what too much thinking feels and looks like. And I do it all the time. When we invite someone to dinner, or several someones, I run through the potential experiences of each person scheduled to come to the table, based on as wide a variety of possible outcomes as I feel able, from the time we know about the event, until days after it. Sounds obsessive. Maybe obsessive. Regardless, clearly I am not alone. Thank you "Big Bang".
I feel validated, however artificially; it makes me feel better. My family loves me, and tolerates my, for a better word, worrying. I know how to stop obsessing when necessary. And, still it feels good to see a part of me reflected in a work of art, created by total strangers. It gives me confidence to proceed, just the way I came, a wide thinker.
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