prose

The school of SCI

The experience of spinal cord injury (SCI) is, for me, like a university... I have gone away to this strange and foreign campus, far from my little village where anything was possible. Now everything is new, it seems I have to learn most everything from scratch, right down to walking.

There is so much to learn here, mostly about myself, however also about so much more. The world becomes totally different when your same mind enters a brand-new body... This University of SCI is my new school. Here I'm majoring in physical education, with an emphasis on exercise. My second major is Awareness of Mind, to watch its tendency towards negativity and to right its course when it strays that way. This second major is a great delight as I learn to ply and to focus my mind firmly on the task at hand.

I have always had an interest in acting, and through that film. I now take that study very seriously watching nearly seven movies per week. Recently that study took me into a delightful little alcove: Joseph Campbell's The Power of Myth speaks of man's relationship to myth and mythology, and finally to our own frontier, God.

My study also includes a good deal of reading, books that I can find online, The Art of War, Flatland, and my favorite book so far: Yoga, The Alpha and the Omega, volume 1. There is more, I am grateful for the ease-of-use the Internet and the computer have provided.

Currently I am working on a class project, the development of a community resource. I am excited for this project, it often seems unfathomably large, but the challenge excites me and I strive forward. You can follow this project as it develops, it is a web site for the spinal cord injury recovery community: www.SCIrecovery.com.

As with other endeavors of education, one is often reliant upon the goodwill and support of others. This is in fact one of those cases. The list is innumerable of those who have provided my student loans and scholarships, and offered their help and support in so many ways. To them I say, from the bottom of my heart a most profound thank you.

— Thursday October 16th 2003