Control: The Truth

I, Dalton Lewis, want this blog to show the truth. The truth is that I know a guy. He works like crazy at work to pay his family’s bills. He works at managing people who work on a study to test a new prescription medication to see if it works. He has two kids that he works like crazy to take care of. He used to live in a spacious town home but downgraded to a two-bedroom apartment with less room because money isn’t free and he has to prioritize his spending.

He went through a rocky divorce. His wife hadn’t been happy and didn’t want to work. I understand that; I don’t like to work either. He watched her move out and get custody of the kids most of the time. This guy — let’s call him Finnegan — he works like crazy to pay the bills. He also met someone new and married her. He has a pretty wife.

He loves board games and indie role-playing games. He writes role-playing game adventures and tries to publish them online to gauge a response. He wants to write an adventure which is a sci-fi story about characters instead of just fighting a big boss bad guy.

This guy makes time to talk to me and hang out with me, his mentally ill friend, even though he has a full life and responsibilities. He has an extended family, too; his mom lived with him for a while. He has a sister with kids and a brother with kids. He has a full life.

No one seems to understand that he is neither rich nor famous but is a wonderful person giving so much back to the world around him. He helps people. He makes his children into wonderful people. He gives everything to help them. He wants to teach them role-playing. He wants them to try games and find ones that they like.

The truth is that society ignores us. Society elects a hothead president, and Finnegan gets so mad at his vaguely racist attitudes. Finnegan can’t believe that he has so little say in who is president and how the country’s policies are dictated. The alternative to the president is another insider who doesn’t even have enough grassroots support to win an election.

I wanted to write about him because the truth sometimes matters. Sometimes showing the world a real person matters. I know that most fiction is about fighting bad guys or entertaining an audience with comedy or big dramatic moments. I just wanted to show a real person for once. This blog is supposed to be about the truth of a world in which I am mentally ill and not rich or famous or anything. I wanted to show you my friend.

Thanks, and take care, friends.