stroke and options
Towards identity narratives: We have been granted everything from walking to talking, smiling and eating, breathing and thinking, enjoying and dealing with diseases, desires, hidden thoughts, and death. No one is perfect enough to live fully to see their dreams, fulfill their work, or find their rightful position and sense of belonging. We struggle through every step of life to make it livable, but we must not forget that knowledge itself is a life force. This knowledge shapes our thoughts and gives them direction. We have been granted much thought, but the action to use this knowledge and give it direction is sometimes lacking.
What we learn, how we learn, what we know, and how we understand it — these are crucial questions. A stroke survivor's story serves as a poignant example, where dreams and experiences are recalled during the physical shutdown of the body. Today, I will share my own experience of how reading and remembering have helped me reach this point of writing.
When my body shut down, every physical action ceased, yet my soul, breath, and hearing persisted. The challenge lay in finding direction for dreams, poems, artistic work, theories, practices, and conversations in every form. I lived with the dream of an unfinished life, unfinished history, memories, and poems.
While existing in a state of physical shutdown, a poem or dream provides an opportunity to process, offering great potential to slowly and purposefully rewire my brain through the concepts of art. I sought refuge in stories where I could find myself. Each word penned by Khayyam, the Persian poet in his Rubaiyat, resonated deeply, discussing the human condition, the choices made at birth, and the journey of becoming.
For anyone who has experienced a stroke, the first step is to recall something of value in their world.