MULTI-TASKING FRIES YOUR BRAIN
Seriously.  Check this out:
"Quick: How many Internet browser tabs do you have open while reading this article? Chances are good that it's more than one. Chances are also good that you're chatting online, checking your text messages and maybe keeping half an eye on the television as you read these words. Given the ever-growing array of digital distractions available, multitasking is more prevalent than ever. Unfortunately, experts say, our brains weren't built for this onslaught. The price is attention overload that leaves us foggy-brained and less productive than before.  In multitasking, "there are only disadvantages," Stanford University communication professor Clifford Nass told LiveScience. "There's nothing good about doing it."...Our ability to carry out complicated tasks like reading and reasoning lie in a brain process called working memory. Short-term memory, attention and cognitive control all come into play in keeping our brains on the ball as we take in and manipulate information.   But all of these processes have their limits. So while multitaskers might believe they're listening to a podcast while texting a coworker, the brain can't actually handle that sort of simultaneous processing, said Nass, the author of "The Man Who Lied to His Laptop: What Machines Teach Us About Human Relationships" (Current Hardcover, 2010).   "When we're trying to do that, our brain is rapidly attempting to switch back and forth from one activity to the other," he said. "That turns out to be extremely difficult."

Read the whole thing...

AN AMAZING LIFE
Here's a story with which those of us with Moebius Syndrome can easily identify:
"My son, August, has a number of quirks that distinguish him from the typically developing 10-year-old. He lives with cerebral palsy, is a spastic quadriplegic, has cortical visual impairment (meaning he is legally blind), is completely nonverbal and cognitively disabled, has a microcephalic head, and must wear a diaper. Moreover, he is immobile—he can't crawl or scoot around or hold himself up or even sit in a chair without being strapped in it. If someone were to put him on the floor and leave him there, he would be in the same location hours later, give or take a foot.  At home, in the eyes of my wife, Ilene; our 7-year-old daughter, Clio; and me, he seems merely a little eccentric, possessor of a few odd quirks, as I said. We don't think of him as being different; he is August, just another member of an already quirky family. Although he cannot play with his sister, she loves him. Without being prompted, she recently made pipe-cleaner wheelchairs for her dolls and rendered her wooden doll house ADA-compliant by retrofitting it with ramps. Now the dolls wheel freely in and out. For family bike rides, we have a specially built bicycle with a Tumble Forms chair attached to the front for him to ride in. I feed August his meals (he cannot feed himself), change his diapers, place him in the supersize jogger when I go running, and put him to bed. He and I have a good relationship: He laughs at my attempts at humor, which consist of making odd sounds or putting him face-up on the rug, holding his feet and legs up high, and rocking him swiftly back and forth. He seems to enjoy my company, and I most certainly enjoy his."

Amen.  Again, read the whole thing...it's an amazing essay, concerning a journey of discovery in lots of ways...

"No matter what the level of your ability, you have more potential
than you can ever develop in a lifetime." -James T Mccay