So powerful. Tough to read if you know someone with a brain injury. The brain is so precious, I could not stop thinking about concussions and football. To voluntarily but yourself (or a child) in that position seems insane. The peach in the jar was a disturbingly vivid depiction of concussions.
Yes! Right on about football (pure crazy) and the image of the peach in the jar.
That image is visceral. It's a great metaphor for brain injury and also just for injury in general. Emotional scars are invisible, yet they linger. And unlike physical injuries, I think they can continue to spread (invisibly, beneath the surface) even if the event itself is long over. On the flip side of the coin, sometimes the bruise(s) and all the damage on the outside can look a whole lot worse than what's going on below and inside. I recently got a few free apples from Trader Joe's because they were all messed up, but I barely had to cut a half inch away before and the rest was pure perfection. I've also had apples that look great and yet they're totally rotten to the core. The thing about the "in a jar" part of that metaphor is that we can only see so much from so many angles, and sometimes much is obscured. Once when I was young I broke a snow globe because I wanted to touch the snow.
I'm fascinated by the word "heal." I just googled it to check out the etymology (as I suspected, it's related to the word "whole") and I accidentally stumbled across this documentary, which now I want to see:
Compelling. I agree with Jim that the image of a peach is the perfect metaphor for how the brain reacts to injury. This happened to my cousin, whose wife was involved in a head on collision with a truck. Miraculously, she was not killed but the person my cousin married had died that day. It was heartbreaking to hear of the slow, painful dissolution of his marriage. Errily similar to this story. I think the same can happen when a marriage ends. There is this incredible sense of loss and grief, yet the person is still alive. You glimpse an aspect of the person you never knew existed. I’ve lived that scenario and I remember wondering if I ever really knew the person who was my husband. Very disorienting.
Can't thank you enough for your thoughtful comments! I always love reading them. They're my favorite part about Readup :)
I knew someone in college who had a brain injury over a summer break. Actually, I barely knew her, but we had a few conversations that I haven't since forgotten, and it was ten years ago, so obviously the conversations must have been quite powerful. I remember she told me about mood swings, an inability to focus, and that schoolwork was nearly impossible but that the university was helping her to get through enough classes to earn a degree. I'm embarrassed to admit that I remember thinking, "that's not fair," although now I think that the university did the right thing. I can't possibly imagine what it's like to be in that position (with a brain injury or with a partner with a brain injury) but I would imagine that you have to get used to many things changing rapidly and a totally new way of life. Devastating.
So powerful. Tough to read if you know someone with a brain injury. The brain is so precious, I could not stop thinking about concussions and football. To voluntarily but yourself (or a child) in that position seems insane. The peach in the jar was a disturbingly vivid depiction of concussions.
Yes! Right on about football (pure crazy) and the image of the peach in the jar.
That image is visceral. It's a great metaphor for brain injury and also just for injury in general. Emotional scars are invisible, yet they linger. And unlike physical injuries, I think they can continue to spread (invisibly, beneath the surface) even if the event itself is long over. On the flip side of the coin, sometimes the bruise(s) and all the damage on the outside can look a whole lot worse than what's going on below and inside. I recently got a few free apples from Trader Joe's because they were all messed up, but I barely had to cut a half inch away before and the rest was pure perfection. I've also had apples that look great and yet they're totally rotten to the core. The thing about the "in a jar" part of that metaphor is that we can only see so much from so many angles, and sometimes much is obscured. Once when I was young I broke a snow globe because I wanted to touch the snow.
I'm fascinated by the word "heal." I just googled it to check out the etymology (as I suspected, it's related to the word "whole") and I accidentally stumbled across this documentary, which now I want to see:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeLAFCrX2M4
Compelling. I agree with Jim that the image of a peach is the perfect metaphor for how the brain reacts to injury. This happened to my cousin, whose wife was involved in a head on collision with a truck. Miraculously, she was not killed but the person my cousin married had died that day. It was heartbreaking to hear of the slow, painful dissolution of his marriage. Errily similar to this story. I think the same can happen when a marriage ends. There is this incredible sense of loss and grief, yet the person is still alive. You glimpse an aspect of the person you never knew existed. I’ve lived that scenario and I remember wondering if I ever really knew the person who was my husband. Very disorienting.
Can't thank you enough for your thoughtful comments! I always love reading them. They're my favorite part about Readup :)
I knew someone in college who had a brain injury over a summer break. Actually, I barely knew her, but we had a few conversations that I haven't since forgotten, and it was ten years ago, so obviously the conversations must have been quite powerful. I remember she told me about mood swings, an inability to focus, and that schoolwork was nearly impossible but that the university was helping her to get through enough classes to earn a degree. I'm embarrassed to admit that I remember thinking, "that's not fair," although now I think that the university did the right thing. I can't possibly imagine what it's like to be in that position (with a brain injury or with a partner with a brain injury) but I would imagine that you have to get used to many things changing rapidly and a totally new way of life. Devastating.