Followers

Saturday 20 May 2017

THE NEAR and THE FAR



On Friday, May 19th Ron was invited to speak at the Probus Club of Nanoose Bay, a mere five minutes away from our home. The club meets in St. Mary’s Church Hall on Powder Point Road at 9:15 am on the third Friday of each month. This social club caters to the interests of a diverse and active membership. Guests are welcome to attend. However, if you wish to join, you will have to put your name on a waiting list until a space becomes available.

After the morning meeting was finished and coffee break over, Ron spoke to the ninety-five members present, his subject in diametric opposition to the jovial, boisterous atmosphere in the Hall. He began by reading a short passage near the beginning of The Defiant Mind :

“Imagine. Imagine you suddenly see the world disappearing down a tunnel. Darkness surrounds a diminishing circle of light as it recedes into the distance. Light is leaving you.  . . .  All energy has left you. Your limbs feel limp, your body sags into itself like a bean bag. You begin to slide off the front edge of your chair. Suddenly. Involuntarily. You are in slow-motion free fall. Perhaps it’s resignation. Whatever happens will happen. There seems to be an inevitability about this event that you don’t comprehend but that you curiously accept. Your body and spirit have been deflated in an inexplicable way. You are experiencing a mystery. And you are terrified.”

Ron spoke for nearly an hour to a rapt audience and, when he finished, the applause he received was generous and genuine. One member even gave him a standing ovation.

The focus of Ron’s talk was to emphasize how common strokes are:

            “Every forty seconds someone          
             in North America suffers a stroke.

             Every four minutes someone in
             North America dies from a stroke.

             Stroke is the leading cause of disability
             In North America.”

Yet he also emphasized how little we know about the brain, at one point quoting from Michio Kaku’s The Future of the Mind:

            “You may have to travel twenty-four trillion miles, to the first
              star outside our solar system, to find an object as complex as
              what is sitting on your shoulders. The mind and the universe
              pose the greatest scientific challenges of all, but they share a
              curious relationship. On the one hand they are polar opposites.
              One is concerned with the vastness of outer space, where we
              encounter strange denizens like black holes, exploding stars,
              and colliding galaxies. The other is concerned with inner
              space. Where we find our most intimate and private hopes and
              desires. This mind is no farther than our next thought, yet we
              are often clueless when asked to articulate and explain it.”


However, argues Ron, if stroke survivors were encouraged to talk about their stroke experiences and their individual stories were recorded, over time, given the enormous number of people who are stricken world-wide by stroke, enough data could be collected and computed, to provide a statistically and scientifically reliable picture of the complex workings of the mind: Findings which could enlighten us all about the capabilities of the brain and teach us the importance of knowing ourselves; findings which could lead to brain therapy as well as physical therapy.



Thursday 11 May 2017

KUDOS FROM CALGARY

Ron - 

It usually takes me weeks to read a book (too busy to read - or too tired!) but I finished yours in a few days.  It was so compelling.  I have no experience with strokes so I didn’t know much about them.  In our family, heart attacks have taken their toll, but not strokes.

I had no idea they were so common nor that they caused so many deaths and disabilities.  Your personal accounts of the stroke and its repercussions for you and for Pat made me feel some of the pain and agony, frustration and desperation that you went through.  It was amazing to read of your recollections when the stroke happened, what you felt and thought.  And all the long months of recovery, your persistence and passionate will to overcome its effects.

I am very glad that your book has received so much praise and will help the public and the medical profession to understand this disease and the difficulties involved in treatment and rehabilitation.

After reading, I immediately phoned a friend from my outdoor club whose husband has recently experienced a stroke.  You will be pleased to know that one of the nursing staff had already told her about it and she had a copy.

Blessings,

Cheryl