“I’m Beside Myself!”

Last night’s historical turn took its toll on me. Today I am a wreck, cannot focus, having trouble getting anything done…

Called a friend with a question on another matter, then asked, “So what do you think?” Baird said, “I’m beside myself!”

Loved that. My mother used that phrase now and then. It made me wonder where it came from.

AI tells me it’s older than one might imagine. First known use was in 1490 by the writer/inventor of the printing press, William Caxton. In Caxton’s translation of Virgil’s Aeneid, he described Dido as being “mad and beside herself.” Not to be taken literally, only that Dido’s mind and/or soul were in such disarray, she was floating free.

The phrase also appears in the 1611 King James Version of the Bible (Acts 26:24), when Paul is told: “Paul, thou art beside thyself; much learning makes thee mad.” Heaven knows an abundance of learning–too much of any good thing heaped on–can be discombobulating…

That’s me today.

Until last night, both Bill and I feared we were witnessing the end of our democracy. Terrible helpless sinking feelings… Yes, we were often beside ourselves. (Just realized our friend Baird was disconnected for happiness, we had been for despair.)

Now that America has its own back–and arms around all those who voted–I expect to function again tomorrow.

God bless America and America’s glorious people–all colors, stripes, religions, orientations, philosophies.

But please may all self-preoccupied anti-democratic American oligarchs quickly gather their toys, leave us in peace, find quiet corners in outer space…