Why do people like Leonard Cohen songs?

They are depressing, sad, and full of heartbreak.

I think they are also funny and disarmingly honest.

“Everybody knows” is a perfect example for this.

Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died

Everybody got this broken feeling… Isn’t that the perfect description of misery? I’ve got this broken feeling. My lightness of being is gone. My ‘Unbekümmertheit”, my carefreeness. I don’t think it’ll ever come back.

What I haven’t lost is my ability to laugh and joke about my misery, at least at times. And who would have thought that some researchers believe that laughter is the best medicine at least for some conditions. Apparently, we change physiologically when we laugh. We stretch muscles throughout our face and body, our pulse and blood pressure go up, and we breathe faster, sending more oxygen to our tissues, including to our brain. The opposite is true as well: no laughter, less oxygen, less chance of recovery.

So I’ll keep listening to Leonard Cohen’ songs. And looking for a stand up comedian who’d be prepared to tell Pádraig’s story, in a funny way. To keep the oxygen going into my brain – and otherwise get people to listen.

Pádraig will be going back to Germany on Sunday. This time to the Therapiezentrum Burgau. We visited there a few times but have never been there over a longer period. They are helping us with An Saol’s pilot project – so it’ll be good to see how they work.

Today, for the first time, Pádraig stuck his hand into a crisp bag to get himself a crisp. He didn’t manage to get his hand back out again, unfortunately. He’ll try that tomorrow and the day after until he’ll be able to do it all by himself.

He’ll just have to keep trying.