1 Long ago I was hospitalized in a weird set of circumstances (as it is most times probably) over a holiday weekend which was was about 4 or 5 nights.
That was life altering.

2. Around that time, I had two or three bad enough encounters with cops.
These also changed my world view in terms of how I handle myself outside the cloister I have built for myself.

Am I the only one here who thinks like this: . . . . that there are many moments in any given week when one could be on the wrong side of a cop's temperament or
involved in a scene that has a cop or someone else transporting one to a mental hospital or to jail?

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In my childhood, I played piano/organ at a state hospital very near my house. And a childhood best friend's father was a pdoc there.
One might think that I have some ease with institutions.
Not really. The power of the state can be massive.

In my thirty years in this area, I have lived near another huge state hospital -- mostly home to schizophrenics (medium term) and
people with addiction problems ( 72-hour holds).
At her request, I once drove someone to a hospital and waited with her until morning when the pdoc showed up to let her through the locked doors.

I have never been inside a jail and yet I often feel like I have to hold everything together in order to be within the lines of acceptable behavior.

In other words, I spend a H U G E amount of energy trying to "pass" as normal
knowing that at any given moment I could freak out and scare people.

M