My Head Injury
I haven’t written here for a bit, due to a recent injury. Four weeks ago I suddenly lost consciousness outside, and fell hitting my head on a stone wall and concrete pavement, resulting in a cracked skull and two brain bleeds. I was in hospital vomiting and sleeping for three days. The good news is that doctors say I should make a full recovery, although it could take much of the rest of the summer. The problem at the moment is I have very low energy levels, hence why I’m signed off work and haven’t written anything here for a while, but I can feel it getting slowly better. I actually feel incredibly lucky, as they say I narrowly avoided brain damage, and I kind of need my brain for my job.
On the positive side, it’s been a chance to de-stress, reflect, and rethink my priorities, as well as to spend more time with my young kids and watch more TV (I recommend Atlanta on Disney, for those who haven’t watched it…). I have some clear ideas of the direction of my research in the near future, including some new ideas that push it in a radically new direction. More soon!
Finally, I also watched all five Ghostbuster movies while incapacitated. I can now confirm that the order from best to worst is: 1984, 2016, 2021, 1989, 2024.
I do hope your energies and orientation in the world are coming back into focus. You might find the work of existentialist philosopher Kevin Aho helpful - he developed a functional neurological syndrome after a cardiac emergency:
https://fgcu.academia.edu/kevinaho
I pleasantly discovered your blog .and, in my opinion, you. address topics that truly MATTER. But i was also surprised to learn of your head injury. I too have recovered (at least I believe I have) from a pretty severe TBI suffered eleven years ago. I wrote a book about the process, titled Bounce.. One lasting effect has been that it caused me to give up my passion for rock climbing. I tbelieve my book falls into the category posited below by William Sanchez. Another surprise, I read your book Why::The purpose of the universe, and also the similarly titled Why This Universe: God cosmology and Free Will by Mathew Rapaport., which is interesting but sometimes a product of poor logic and wishful thinking. I read it because I had been immersed in the rabbit hole of panpsychism