Sherlock Holmes

I am reading or re-reading the short stories of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I have a book journal but this post really belongs here. I have always loved this fictional character and love his method of deduction. I don't always agree with Mr. Holmes actions in his stories but I like the way he calmly investigates a mystery and tries to see clearly what the truth is without any preconceived ideas.

I am getting ready to go back home and will be leaving in three weeks. I want to take back all of the lessons that I have learned here in Korea. I don't want to return to the life I led before coming here. I lay in my bed and watched television, read and ate too much. I rarely exercised. I felt hopeless about getting myself in shape for further adventures and yet did not believe I would have anymore. Then Korea kicked me in the rear and it was a very hard kick. It woke me up.

I think I am going to call this adventure in Korea, "Waking up in Korea". Every place I went I was reminded of the 1950's. I think I am reminded of the place I was in at that time too because I had so many issues not looked at, shadows not examined and it seemed to go along with what I was seeing in Korea.

Taking what I understood to be the methods of Sherlock Holmes, I have been examining different issues so I won't get stuck in the same place before I left. I will be gone for only nine months but it feels like nine years. Each month here was full of surprises and discoveries and I seemed to live more in one moment that I did in California. My son who lived in another part of Asia said it was the same for him too.

My method in this discovery is my journal and it is proving to be very fruitful. I have found out things that I knew unconsciously but not consciously. It always surprises me how the mind can play such tricks, but then if it didn't therapists and psychologists would be out of work. I won't be able to get help in unraveling these mysteries of my youth and earlier years. I could not afford it and not too many therapists are as intelligent as Mr. Holmes. My journal will have to suffice. I am lucky in that my resources are sufficient for this.

There is no Dr. Watson unless it is my journal, but I don't have to worry about what I tell it. It must be rough for some well-known people such as presidents or actors that they could never confide their darkest secrets to a therapist and not even to a journal. It is too risky for them. They have to solve their own problems without leaving a paper trail or a series of tape recordings. Ah well, there are advantages and disadvantages to everything.

Right now, I am counting on Mr. Holmes' help in getting to the bottom of my problems at least enough of them so I can continue my quest to get healthier mentally, emotionally and physically.