Sometimes the first duty of intelligent men is the restatement of the obvious.

George Orwell

You might know the parable of the Blind Men and an Elephant. I like that story because it illustrates really well that the same thing appears very different to different people. There is also the concept of inattention blindness, where a person, for whatever reason, and there can be different ones, is not paying attention – even though the stimulus is directly in front of them. I am sure there are many other example why people sometimes do not see the obvious.

But there are times when I cannot find an explanation —

Everybody needs movement. It is our senses that connect us to the world: sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch. Depriving someone of those sensual experiences amounts to torture. That’s what they do in Guantanamo Bay. – Yet, it seems to be ok to do this to those with a severe Acquired Brain Injury (sABI), in the interest of health and safety, of course. And the budget.

I am still looking for a comedian who could pick this up and bring it to his stand up comedy show.

Doctors and clinicians are organising conferences around the world and are spending a fortune in research (and travel) to establish when it makes sense to allow those with a sABI access to the world around them, using their senses — without having a worry in the world about the valuable resources they spent on those trips and conferences.

Which in my mind could make another topic for a good night out in the Comedy Club.

A line in Eddie Vedder’s song Society is that when you have more than you think (or society thinks) you have, you need more space.

Pádraig had a bit of that space again last week. In the park, with a bun and a hot chocolate. And good company.

And a bit of a workout to loose some of those calories.

In An Saol, we had a German visitor from Austria (!:) who wrote the book on Functional Electrical Stimulation in Neurorehabilitation. In addition to sharing some of his knowledge and experience of decades of working in the field, he also brought along a new device which will become available in a few weeks and will make it not just possible, but also easy, to use eStim, including for home use.

It was amazing to see how Pádraig could sit up and pull back his shoulders with the help of eStim.

Other clients were able to do things they usually, and some for a long time, could not do.

The idea is not, to just move with the support of eStim, but to encourage the awakening of dormant connections to the brain and, in an ideal case, to support and encourage the development of new ones.

Not from one day to the next, or after a once-off use, but following a long, regular and consistent application of eStim.

Thomas A. Edison once said that Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.

He was, obviously, right.

PS: Just in case and because you never know, I want to make it crystal clear that I do not believe that any of the material above recommended to a comedian is in any way funny. It is, in fact, so depressing and so terribly sad that it I find myself with tears in my eyes far too often. I find it terrible, irresponsible, and medieval. It makes me mad. I have found that in impossible and totally absurd situations, humour and laughter are the only strategy to stay sane.