First Blog

 “The real hopeless victims of mental illness are to be found among those who appear to be most normal. Many of them are normal because they are so well adjusted to our mode of existence, because their human voice has been silenced so early in their lives, that they do not even struggle or suffer or develop symptoms as the neurotic does. They are normal not in what may be called the absolute sense of the word; they are normal only in relation to a profoundly abnormal society. Their perfect adjustment to that abnormal society is a measure of their mental sickness. These millions of abnormally normal people, living without fuss in a society to which, if they were fully human beings, they ought not to be adjusted.” ― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited

Marbles is/was a sport for kids, where competitors have small round glass beads which target others in a shoot, sometimes within a circle, sometimes into a pot.   (The modern sport of curling is not unlike this.) But the marbles, being small, were easily lost, and thus as when lost, their owner might look frantically for them.   Thus was born the expression “lost his marbles.” I played marbles way back then.   It was a high pressure game, to make an accurate shot when big stakes (your own property) were involved. Big-time matches for a ten-year old, settled on an open field with strategies, skills, spectators, and cheering. In the 20 th century it became a general expression within the language, and was used in two ways, to be angry or to be crazy.   The meaning has expanded, though it isn’t clear kids play marbles any more.   So, what are those marbles that some people lose?   It usually refers to a sudden change in one or more of the following? Social communication