It is a well known thing that I confuse things or put things together that don’t belong together. For instance, transposing letters or words as I am speaking or typing. I am infamous for not getting all my homophones right. For example there, their and they’re, even double checking my writing I still get some of them mixed up. Therefore (that time I got it right) I would and have taken it to the next step and associate concepts with items or people that wouldn’t normally have those associations.
All to often, I will think as I walk around that person looks like this person or see them do something that reminds me of some one or something else. Personally, I think some people do it on purpose but that is a whole other conversation. If you don’t believe me think about advertising. We all know advertisers have suggestive themes to make you buy their products. Well people can do that too. Whenever someone wants something maybe for a birthday or their spouse complete the “honey do” list ( I don’t like the title of that either) it has been suggested to you indirectly or directly. Well those same people could get you thinking about things you may never thought of or put together. As a result, there are certain associations that my mind connects with certain people through past experiences. Believe me some of them do not go well together. Seriously, I have seen some nasty pictures as of late on social media that I literally want to throw my phone but stopped the urge because my complaints only seem to help it more. Which is the exact opposite of what I wanted to happen. Yes, subliminal messaging works well on me and yes, it is that bad. Then you combine that with I am a confused person to begin with and my innate process of connecting things to what I already know, the situation gets even worse.
Let me give you an example of how this chain of events could take a wrong turn. As babies we are gven those soft furry stuffed toys or blankets. You have seen it or I am positive you have touched a stuffed toy and commented on how soft it is. Heck before PETA mink coats were the thing, for several reasons even. Women in classic movies were always wanting them because they were soft and expensive. Though soon and extremely right we were found out we evolved from needing to kill animals for their fur as our clothing. So the softest synthetic fur came to be that is used today for all sorts of things including stuffed animals. We have even taken protecting animals even more by buying food and implementing grooming regimes to ensure they have a healthy coat of fur. Which they then think as they pet their family friend, how soft their fur is.
Well when I was a child I had this big white soft teddy bear, it was really big. In fact, the half shirt I wore in Middle School and High School (man my teachers hated that shirt) fit very well on this white teddy bear and he is still wearing it to this day. Though of course as a little girl I would hug, play and even lay my head on this teddy bear. Now my family was also into Samoyed Dogs, if you haven’t seen one they are big white fluffy sled dogs, whose shedding could make several chihuahua sweaters. To continue with the putting things together in weird ways. This one day I closed my eyes and could see a picture of me about to bury my head in a whole bunch of fur. You would think nothing of it considering I had a whole bunch of white fluff in my life.
Though here is where it takes the turn. I almost screamed, well at least in my mind I did, I said what the heck, what am I doing? Ew! This is where social media can give subliminal messaging to. I started to think that fur is not good and you shouldn’t even hold a pet close to you your face or hug a pet because it is bad, sick and wrong. That is why I became anxious I was like what is going on here? I freaked out a little to be honest. Now it has gotten to the point where I get weirded out even thinking of petting an animal. How stupid is that, though that is the power of subliminal messaging and the horrible cycle I want to get out of before I question other perfectly normal things such as petting animals.
-Jennie Nawrocki