Tuesday, April 26, 2011

The benifits of brain damage

4/23/11 Saturday
I’m watching the old classic movie, The Ten Commandments right now. Once again I can enjoy the benefits of losing my memory. Odds are that I have seen this movie before, perhaps even several times, but right now I am seeing it as if for the first time. There is nothing familiar about what I see, other than portions from the quick cuts that are often used to advertise it or perhaps shown to honor Charleston Hesston. So I know of the movie, but don’t recall ever seeing it, though the scene where death, like a fog, claims the first born seems familiar.

I’ve written of this phenomenon before, of not remembering movies I know I’ve seen before. The Wizard of Oz is one of them, a movie I saw as if for the first time when I was about 46 years old, two years after I woke from the coma. I was surprised to find that it was a musical. Cherie told me that one of our favorite movies, from our first marriage years ago, was Singing in the Rain. We’ve watched it a few times since we got back together and I still have a hard time remembering it each time though more of it is familiar with repeated viewings. But it’s a neat wonder, a strange and surprising benefit that comes with the brain injury. You got to look for the good in these things, find that which brings joy. It’s late now. I haven’t been doing good at completing posts lately. Working harder on the farm and with that comes a higher level of pain.

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