I confess that when first I made acquaintance with Charles Strickland I never for a moment discerned that there was in him anything out of the ordinary.
Perhaps it's a sign that they've seen something in us which pointedly and tragically we don't yet quite see in ourselves and have never been alowed to believe in by figures in our past that we are deserving of love.
Therefore, time passes without us really noticing it, and seems to go quickly. However, if the brain is not stimulated in this way, it concentrates its full energies on monitoring the passing of time.
Now, if you haven't noticed, I am black, thank you -- and when you grow up in a segregated city as I have, like Chicago, you're conditioned to believe that color and race can never be separate.
What I hadn't focused on, and what turns out to be a much more common source of distraction, are the internal triggers, the uncomfortable emotional states that we seek to escape.