Remission

 My ear worm is in remission. There are fragments of melody playing in my head from time to time, but I don't let it bother me. It lacks the persistent, bothersome, obsessive quality it used to have, like a radio that can't be turned off. Perhaps it was meditation that made this go away. You realize you don't have to turn off the radio. 

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I'm cited on receptivity in this book.  I like the idea of being "hooked" on a literary text. Instead of the conventional idea that we will read a book and immediately forget it, graduating with a liberal arts degree but without ever being fascinated enough with any text to remember its author. My engagement with many authors borders of the obsessive. The memorization and the ear worm relate to this. I've never known people as afflicted with ear worm with purely verbal material as I have been.  

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I've noticed that arguments with myself are also diminishing in intensity. When I find myself starting an internal debate, I note what is happening. It doesn't stop the argument, but it places it in its proper perspective.