Tiger Trails

The definition of Tourette's syndrome (TS) is really quite short: tics. If you want to get really wordy, in order to be more specific, try the following. Tics: lots, often, forever. So, I had a wacky idea. I would write a book that was one paragraph long. I was really aiming for one sentence, but it does not work out that way. Looks more like three sentences, to be fair. Even three sentences seem like a ridiculously thin book. What fills out most of the book is the explanation of the...
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The definition of Tourette's syndrome (TS) is really quite short: tics. If you want to get really wordy, in order to be more specific, try the following. Tics: lots, often, forever. So, I had a wacky idea. I would write a book that was one paragraph long. I was really aiming for one sentence, but it does not work out that way. Looks more like three sentences, to be fair. Even three sentences seem like a ridiculously thin book. What fills out most of the book is the explanation of the words in those three sentences. What gives us so much grief is not the definition, but the ramifications. What impact does TS have on your social life? Lots. Does TS affect your health? Absolutely. I run into questions like these, and a hundred others, all the time when explaining TS. After 20 years, I can predict fairly well the kinds of questions that will spring up out of answers to earlier questions. What you hold in your hand is my attempt to provide the first 90 minutes of the Tourette's conversation, and the questions people typically ask. However, we each pursue these questions in our own unique way. What is important to an employer may be radically different from what is important to a grandparent. So, instead of deciding for you what order these things go in, I wanted to let you decide. I patterned this book after a joy from my own formative years: the "Choose Your Own Adventure" series of books. In them, we flew to the moon, dug for pirate treasure, and rode in balloons and race cars. Those books told a single story 30 different ways. From the second or third page, you were master of your destiny. Failure or death were just as close as victory, riches, and fame. Basically, each decision led you to two or more answers to the motivating question, "What do you do?" or perhaps, "Which way do you turn?" The answer you picked pointed you to a page with more of the story.