Brandon Marshall
Celebrities such a football players are too often in the news for bad reasons, but both my kids have, at various times, alerted me to Brandon Marshall, a Chicago Bears receiver, who’s outed himself as suffering from borderline personality disorder. They know about my interest because they know about my book, Missing: Coming to Terms with a Borderline Mother, in which I describe my mom’s undiagnosed BPD.
At Thursday night’s game with the Giants, Marshall’s bright green shoes attracted attention amidst a sea of pink, which other players wore for breast-cancer awareness. Marshall expected to be fined $5000 by the NFL  for wearing the wrong color, and then planned to donate an additional $5000 to a breast cancer group.
He wore the wrong shoes in honor of Mental Illness Awareness Week, which just ended yesterday. He began the Brandon Marshall Foundation to address mental health issues and credits Dr. Marsha Linehan, who developed dialectical behavior therapy, as an inspiration. Dr. Linehan came out with her own struggles with BPD at about the same time as Marshall.
These people are very brave.
So, who’s inspiring you these days?
He’s pretty brave, it’s true. I liked “Haroun.”
Last night (10/18), I was in the same room as Salman Rushdie! First of all, he’s my god. Secondly, he’s a warm, witty, fun guy. He’s rational, straightforward, and also whimsical. That he has come out of his ordeal a whole person is a continuing miracle. That he’s a great writer is no surprise. I now intend to read The Satanic Verses, which he says is mostly about London and is funny! A great inspiration.
She’s something, isn’t she?
Elizabeth Warren!