Eek! I Have to Write a Bio!

I've entered the world of political advocacy lately because of what I've experienced with Lyme disease. I've always been passionate about the meta-issues that are addressed in politics, but didn't really know how to get in  there, where to begin, what meaningful role I might play. Advocating for issues related to Lyme Disease is so concrete for me, it's a natural place to dive in, I suppose.

Of course, since i'm living with a debiiatating case of Lyme, it's a bit tricky figuring out exactly what I might do. Writing has to be a big part of that. I can't talk on the phone. It quite literally hurts my ears, both externally and internally, and I can't hear well and I lose focus. I can't go to a lot of meetings. If I could, I'd be working a real job. But I can write. And I can do some behind the scenes organizing.

Recently, I've been invited to write on a fairly well-traficked political blog. I'm honored to be invited. My first hurdle to activating this invitation, though, brings up a lot for me. I have to write a bio. Eek!

I've never been good at the "sum yourself up in a paragraph or two" exercise. Of course, you can never get a full sense of somebody from these. I guess, I just have a hard time figuring out what's pertinent and/or interesting enough for the context. Additionally, I'm now a little self-conscious about my current state of being. My bio 4 years ago would look very different than it does now, in terms of "what I do". What do I do anyway? Why would anybody be interested in hearing what I have to say, now that I'm just a homebound do-nothing?

In letting my new supervisor know that I was struggling to write a bio, I wrote this:

Okay. I guess I'd better get to it. I haven't had a photo taken in a while. And I absolutely struggle with "bios". Especially now that I've been disabled with Lyme the last few years, because I feel so "useless". I don't like it to define me, and yet, it defines my lifestyle. I'm like 3 people, the girl that grew up in a very abusive, ever-moving military household, the young woman who did a lot of work to gain emotional health and be the vibrant, active, world-traveling person she really is, and now this practically homebound mother,trapped in her mind by a devastating disease. Of course, it's brought out the writer me and all my passion has to go there and into my parenting, as I have no other way to expend it. It's strange though, to realize that I used to backback through Brazil on my own, travel to Sri Lanka and the Maldives on my own. That I SCUBA'd and rode horses and skied a crevasse and started businesses, gave birth at home. That I took a 3-year course in being a spiritual therapist just after getting my MBA. That I've lain down in front of machinery to protect a compost site and faced off with the highest-powered lawyers in Boston to protect my friend. And now, a couple of hours in the local park can leave me bedridden for days.

Yes, a couple of hours in the park can do me in. I learned a hard lesson yesterday about what kinds of things I need in place if I'm to try and go out. This might be hard to understand if you're a healthy person. The Spoon Theory may help you get a glimpse of what it's like to live this way.

What kind of life is this? What kind of bio does one write when this is one's life?