Wednesday, May 26, 2010

When Protons Colide

Today I try to find the good of my many physical ailments.
I am indeed profoundly deaf, have no balance due to loss of that inner balance thing that most of us still have, and the many other little nagging "issues" that Mary begs me to get checked.
Many of these can be written off as what a guy in his 50's gets. Some may be due to the stroke damage that occurred on that fateful night of September 9, 2007. Many good people believe that stress caused the 9/11 type medical blow up that night. If I accept this theory, and I do, then it behooves me to make some use of this hypothesis.

Physicists learn about the subatomic world by smashing things together and then looking at the debris. Imagine a midair collision between two watermelons; it would make quite a mess, but nothing very interesting would result.

Suppose though, you get two protons to collide head-on. If they are moving fast enough, the energy of their collision, converted into mass a la Einstein's E=mc2, would produce a shower of new particles. It would be as if 2 colliding watermelons splattered into a shower of pineapples, blueberries, mangoes and other exotic fruits.

Forgive me if I take on the role of "interesting" here. I prefer the term "interesting" as opposed to "enigma".
Mary often comments that she finds me "interesting", and I swear you can hear the quotations as she says it!

Anyway, I like to think of my 100 day hospital stay along with the assorted other medical maladies as a way of learning about my body, my mind, and my soul if you will. All of my "protons" smashed it seems on that night almost 3 years ago now, and since then I have been examining the "debris".

I would like to think that a new "David" was created. I feel much different physically. Some reasons are obvious, for I am deaf and a true Cyborg with my cochlear implant; I walk different with no balance; and I sound different. In my mind anyway.

Deafness for sure had the biggest impact on me. I became much more observant, inquisitive. The whole medical experience somehow made me less selfish, and more willing to help and give.

The stroke made me feel vulnerable.
Scared me.
Made me slow down, think about life. Love more. Enjoy the concerto that life offers every second of every day!

I want to get a bumper sticker that says: "Slow down, enjoy life, love more". But actions speak louder than words so I will try to set an example every day and do just that. Besides, bumper stickers are hard to read for us over 50 folks.

Try small changes in your life before science tries an experiment to examine you!

Do what you can to make a difference in what you believe in.
Live a little more, and love a lot more.
The concerto is wonderful!

Namaste,

David

6 comments:

Annieofbluegables said...

(((((hugs to David))))))
loved the quote

Sarah Lulu said...

Lovely lovely post.

I was reminded myself in the last month or so (whilst having a particularly awful labrynthitis attack) ...how wonderful it can be to simple be able to sit and smile haha ...

Taking your "Slow down, enjoy life and love more .." as my motto for today. xx

Chris H said...

Nice post Dude. {{{HUGS}}

James said...

Thanks for stopping by and leaving the nice comment.

Ironically, I worked in the only Deaf drug and alcohol treatment program in CA. I learned ASL, as well as the culture.

No reflection on you, but every culturally Deaf person - as in no hearing ever - who got the implants, became despondent and even more isolated. They didn't fit in either world.

Glad you've done so well in yours. :-)

Karen (formerly kcinnova) said...

"Slow down, enjoy life, love more"
Beautiful!
And even this 44yo would have trouble reading it... there are definitely aging issues at work in all of us!
Still, I imagine that 2 watermelons colliding in mid-air would be quite a show-y, showery display... especially if the light was shining just so...

Lori said...

As always, your wisdom and your ability to say it so beautifully comes forth. I sure have missed reading your words.

Happy fathers day David. Hope you have a wonderful day. :)