Tolerance for my shortcomings

I commented on Dana's blog where she wrote that her husband has ADD and struggles with organising anything, and I felt that comment needed a post of its own, so here it is.

 I have never thought of myself as having ADD, but I do just the kind of thing Dana's husband did. I have several times reached the cash desk in the supermarket and found I had no money with me (they don't accept credit cards.)  It's embarrassing, but the girls there know me well and are very nice about it.  I  can just leave my purchases there and come back with the money later.

I'm hopeless at organising anything. I once found myself on a committee running an organisation for gifted children, and my job was to organise monthly trips. I wondered how I had managed to have a gifted child as I was so inept. I hated the job anyway, and found it very difficult. It's not the first time I have found myself in a job that needs organising skills and failed hopelessly - I just don't have the ability or even the inclination. You know the saying, "couldn't organise a Sunday School picnic"?  That's me. I forget essential things. The details just leave my mind when I'm not thinking about them.

Are these the symptoms of ADD? If so, it's lucky I don't believe in this obsessive and misleading classification of common characteristics!

Fortunately, my wife is a Filipina and one of the most tolerant of that tolerant people. No matter how many times I forget (or omit) to shut the screen door after me (keeps out the mosquitoes) she just gets up and quietly shuts it.  She doesn't get mad at me. I think for her it's just something she finds she has to do, if she wants it done - like opening an umbrella when it rains.  Though she will tell me how many mosquitoes she has caught inside the house, later in the evening, as though it's just a matter of interest to everyone.