Today is a down day, a travel day with no speaking. When I helped set up this trip’s schedule there was a question about the possibility of getting a tour of the Houston Space Center (NASA), so I included an extra day just to be sure. That is one thread that led to today.
Cute?...not exactly!
A second thread occurred a year ago when I traveled last year to a cabin just outside of Colorado Springs, Colorado, to work with a woman on the potential screenplay for The Shack. Her name is Linda Seger, a screenwriting coach who has consulted on over 2000 screenplays with the likes of Ron Howard, Ray Bradbury and Jennifer Hildebrand. She has also presented her seminars in more than 30 countries on 6 different continents. Linda is the author of several books including the bestselling Making A Good Script Great, and Spiritual Steps on the Road to Success. She holds an M.A. in Religion and the Arts from Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, California, a ThD in Drama and Theology from The Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California, and an M.A. in feminist theology from Immaculate Heart College Center, Los Angeles, California. She has been a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) since 1970. She also likes to ride horses and regularly puts on horse dancing exhibitions for her friends and family.
A third thread also occurred even earlier last year, when during a regular and routine physical I told my doctor that I had started to experiencing shaking in my hands. It was diagnosed as Familial Extreme Tremors, a genetic neurological disorder gifted to me in a long list of congenital defects that I inherited from my mother. Others include broken kneecaps, extra half a vertebra in my low back, weak eyes and freckles. I like freckles. “A face without freckles is like a night sky without stars.” The shaking in my hands increases with stress and with being tired.
A couple months after the diagnosis I was sitting in Linda’s house, poster papers plastered all around the room as we worked on the screenplay bones, and she asked me about my trembling hands. Turns out she has her own neural challenge, forget the word…starts with a ‘d’…anyway, she has the involuntary clamping of muscles. After we commiserate for a bit, she tells me that she is getting help from this neuro-chiropractor in Houston, Dr Henry. After a couple emails, the doc, who just happened to have read the book and loved it, tells me that if I am ever in Houston to drop in and she would give me the once over.
So I book this extra day, thinking I am going to NASA with Smith, but Smith gets the call from Florida that they are rolling out the Shuttle and need him there Thursday. Got to do NASA yesterday and Smith and I head out very early to Hobby Airport for his 8AM flight. We took a cab, and half way to the airport had to pull over and switch taxis – seems the first guy stole the second one’s call, which I guess is not a good idea, and the first guy figured it wasn’t worth getting killed over. No discount. Ah, the adventures of the road.
After dropping off Smith, the cabby delivers me to Dr Henry’s office, where I spend the next half hour filling out the always-required paperwork. Over the next six hours I am poked, prodded, relieved, listen to Mozart with electrodes attached, sniffed peppermint and watched a band of red and white pass in front of me repeatedly. Did you know that every one of us has a very real blind spot, an area that each eye cannot see but is filled in by the brain? We mapped it five times during the day, watching it shrink and get more symmetrical as I did my brain exercises. Doc says that the last thirty years has given us unprecedented information about the brain.
That reminds me about a book I read recently. Hooked: New Science on How Casual Sex is Affecting Our Children by M.D. Joe S. McIlhaney Jr and M.D. Freda McKissic Bush. This is a science book, not a faith-based study, and the conclusion is that casual sex and having multiple partners not only creates synaptic bonds and therefore addictions, but the damage to the brain reduces our ability to bond in relationships. They write that contrary to evolutionary theory – that we are innately polygamous – the brain research of the last thirty years has proven that we were designed for monogamy. What a surprise, eh?!
Six hours later, I feel a lot better. My tremors have reduced substantially and I a list of exercises to help my brain get healthier in the areas that are faltering. By the way, walking and swimming (especially the back stroke) are two of the best brain exercise activities. Yes, my mom is partly to blame, but so is the accident I had in the late 1970s; I was a pedestrian crossing a street and hit by a high-risk 17-year-old driver doing 55mph in the center turning lane. Another simple example how God is not the author of evil, but promises to show up in the middle of the damage we bring to the table, and uses what we offer to accomplish good. If it had not been for that accident there is a good chance that I would not have married Kim. So the accident sucked, but I am eternally grateful for what God did with the messes that I brought to the table.
Nina picks me up and drops me at Hobby. I am early and thinking that I might be able to catch an earlier flight to Philadelphia, I approach the Southwest counter. My flight scheduled for 6:50PM has been delayed to 8:30PM and I will get into Philly well after midnight. There is an option, but it is also delayed and if I take it, I could easily spend the night in Orlando. No thanks. I think I’ll just hang around and see what happens. Gives me a chance to write this blog anyway. So, if you read this on Thursday…I am probably still in Houston.
