Friday, April 16, 2010

. . . On a More Somber Note

So during my little self-aggrandizing celebration of half a million hits yesterday, I was given a smack of reality while reading on Twitter that Tom Hall had a stroke. If you're not acquainted with Tom Hall, he is the man who is heading up the second project at KI (unless that's changed, which there is a good chance that has since things seem to change there laterally from time to time, and I think he might have been shifted to a more Creative Director type of role . . . I can't verify anything atm because they don't really announce lateral moves unless it's someone in the public eye). Many months ago I did a search on him and found out a lot of very interesting tid-bits.

From everything his Twitter is saying, he seems to be in good spirits and is going to go through some rehabilitation. For us that should mean some both touching and funny tweets as he recovers. That just seems to be his style.

So this unfortunate stroke of Mr. Hall's reminded me yesterday of a great video that a friend of mine shared with me a year or so ago. Not only does it talk about strokes and what that's like, but there's this "idea worth sharing" from Jill Bolte Taylor that's pretty astounding and inspirational. Basically her left-brain shut down from her stroke, and she experienced the world through right-brain understanding only. It's a loooong video, almost 19 minutes, but so worth it.



Now, I have no idea if Tom Hall's experience was anything like this, but I hope that he can make a full recovery like Jill Bolte Taylor did. Not only does it appear that a recovery like Jill's possible, but if you watch the video you see that she came out of the experience with a great message of hope to share.

I hope you all find your peace, and, sincerely, best wishes for a speedy recovery, Mr. Hall, from the readers of the Friendly Necromancer.

Happy Dueling!

8 comments:

  1. My grandpa had a stroke not too long ago, he is 70 something now, and he is doing great, so most likely he will get better soon! SO GET WELL SOON TOM! I will be praying for u!


    VIVA WIZARDD101!!!

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  2. Well, I watched the whole video, and that is entirely AMAZING. Woah.

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  3. So far the healing is looking good. He said he's in rehab for his right hand and foot. So he had a stroke in the left hemisphere -just like in that vid- but his language is working fine again. Well, maybe. After all he said hospital food is decent :)
    Ok wandering off. Get well soon Tom!

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  4. The video is quite amazing and funny
    Get better soon Tom!

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  5. Thank you for sharing this enlightenment, Friendly. The personal story the speaker shares is too important to miss out on, and grasping enough that you forget about the length of the video. I feel that we're very lucky as a species: we have the capability of (trying to) understanding nature and communicating that knowledge to others. It seems miraculous that she was able to get back on her feet and share her observations and experiences with so much detail and memory, and that thought struck me hard, especially after the seeing the photo of her mother and her.

    Wishing Tom a speedy recovery; apparently poster CD says things are looking positive so far!

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  6. Anonymous17/4/10 19:53

    Just watched the video. Wow. I especially liked the part where she talked about her experiences in Nirvana.
    Also, I read Tom's recent Twitter posts. Glad to see him making a steadfast recovery. Get well soon Tom!

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