The Power of Thinking
Dec/Jan '98/'99
The Brain: The whitish mass of soft matter (the center of the nervous system, and the seat of consciousness and volition) which is enclosed in the cartilaginous or bony cranium of vertebrate animals
I've been spending the past few months thinking. Thinking about organized religion, the American Government, the NFL referees, and other mystifying topics. Mostly I've been thinking about my brain.
My brain has been a good organ. Headaches have been very rare. All in all I'd have to say that my brain and my body have had a pretty good mutual friendship since the late 60's. Thirty years is a long time. I hope my brain isn't getting tired of me. Maybe I should try treating it a little better. Let me tell you why.

Two days ago I was watching a movie at a friends house. It's my old apartment, and I was quite comfortable sitting in the familiar leather chair...staring at the friendly tube. The movie is one of my all time favorites. It's about a half human/half vampire who is out to avenge the death of his mother, who was killed by a vampire. The plot has nothing to do with what happened to my brain and my body, but I always like to throw the word vampire into the mix. Sorry 'bout that.
There is a subway scene in the movie which includes alot of flashing white light. As I observed the light it reminded me of a true story I had read about a cartoon in Japan causing an "outbreak" of epileptic seizures in Japan. Turns out some cartoon had some hypnotic flashing lights, which can trigger a seizure with certain epileptic individuals. I've never had a seizure, and I can only remember "passing out" one time in my life. That's another story for another day, but I will let you know that it involves a very angry drill sergeant and about 30 female soldiers in boot camp.
So here I am watching the movie and thinking about these poor Japanese children having seizures way over there on the other side of the globe. Right about then I started to feel weird. The TV was going in and out of focus. I was light-headed. I was going from extreme paranoia to near nirvana in a matter of seconds. I have friends that would pay good money for these circumstances, but I was pretty scared. What happened next is pretty embarrassing. Let's just say that my friend needs some new bathroom fixtures. He also did a topnotch job fixing a little drywall problem I created.
So now I can't drive. The doctors are perplexed. So am I. I have a feeling the test results that I will go through over the next month won't find a whole lot. I'm sure I wasn't drugged, though a bystander would have thought I was. My friend said something as a joke to me. He said, "You did this to get attention". We both laughed about it, because we both know that it's not true. But there is something in that little joke that interested me. He said "you did this...." and he is right. I did it. My brain. My body. Heck, I even thought about having a seizure before it happened. Maybe the symptoms were subtle at first, and subconsciously I was aware of the impending nightmare that was about to unfold. I don't think I'll ever know.
I'm optimistic. I've always had this strong feeling that I'd live a very long time. I don't know...something like 102. I still have that same feeling after this little episode. Maybe if I think hard enough it'll happen. Hmmm.....when's the next lotto drawing....
**Update-May '99: I'm fine. I can drive. I feel good.