Bell's Palsy- Surprises

Two surprises actually.
I was dreading teaching summer school, two hours lecture a day five days a week, with my speech problem. But (at least after two days) it seems to be working like therapy. I am more comfortable talking and my face looks better after the workout.
The second surprise is the support I am getting. It is a strange way to find out who the people are who really care, those that are rooting for me, praying for me.

Bell's Palsy

Today I was diagnosed with Bell's Palsy.
No surprise really, we've suspected it for about ten days now. The relief is that it was not a stroke or a tumor.
What is Bell's Palsy? Basically, it is thought to be a viral affection affecting one of the facial nerves. The left side of my face is affected. I cannot close my left eye completely. The wrinkles are gone from the left side of my forehead. My mouth is crooked. I cannot whistle. I fluff some words when I speak, although people assure me it is not noticeable.
I lectured today for two hours and sometimes it seemed like I was slurring every other word. I notice now, four hours later, that the left side of my jaw is really sore but my pronunciation appears to be a lot better.

Texas Rangers June 5 2012

Two questions: Can anybody on this team pitch? Can anybody on this team hit? Last night they were nearly no hit in a game where Oakland (yes, Oakland) scored eight runs in the first inning. A good team is going to get blown out once in a while over 162 games. But lately, if I didn't know any better, I'd swear I'd pulled a Rip van Winkle and it was the Cowboys scores I was seeing,

Change the Course of History

In light of the post on the overuse of the word "tragic," this is in the same vein.
So often the phrase is used "x changed the course of history." Is this really true? More importantly, is it really possible? When an individual changes direction, or course, that person still has an idea of where he is going. But in history, do we know where we are going? Do we know the result? A person or an event can affect history, they can have an impact on it, but can they change the direction? Only if we know what that direction would be without the actor. Put another way, a river runs in a certain direction. A natural phenomena (such as an earthquake) or a man-made phenomena ( a dam) will change the course of the river. Another example is the Dallas White Rock Marathon. Organizers have changed its course several times in recent years. You can't change the course of history without a time machine.

Tragic

Death is less noticeable when it occurs privately and piecemeal. In time of peace we can pretend, almost successfully, that it is only a regrettable accident, which ought to have been avoided. If a wealthy old gentleman of ninety-two suddenly falls dead of heart failure, the papers headline the event: "Tragic Death of Millionaire"; and we feel quite astonished and indignant that anybody so rich should be cut off in his prime. With all that money available for research, science should have been able to solve the problem of death for him. If we do not think this, then why use the word tragic about a death so clean, painless, and mature?
-Dorothy Sayers. "Problem Picture" in The Whimsical Christian. (134)

Slavery and the Constitution

Regardless of how events played out, sectionalism and slavery are key to understanding the major debates and compromises in Philadelphia during the summer of 1787. Slavery, of course, did not precipitate every division at the convention, nor was every debate that did not include slavery trivial.
But in the central role it played, the weight of evidence leads inescapably to the conclusion that the Constitution was drafted by highly pragmatic men who were pursuing limited and self-interested goals. Philosophical concerns seemed to play only a minor role in the proceedings, and only then with but a few of the participants. Nonetheless, for all that, precisely because the delegates in Philadelphia were pragmatic, and were there to represent specific, parochial interests. They were able to draft a document that was workable, adaptable, and able to survive challenges that could never have been imagined in 1787. It is distinctly possible that had idealism dominated in Philadelphia, American democracy would have failed.
-Lawrence Goldstone. Dark Bargain: Slavery, Profits, and the Struggle for the Constitution. (195)

From Dorothy Sayers

Creed of St. Euthanasia

(commonly called the Atheneum Creed)

 

I believe in man, maker of himself and inventor of all science. And in myself, his manifestation, and captain of my psyche; and that I should not suffer anything painful or unpleasant.

And in a vague, evolving deity, the future-begotten child of man; conceived by the spirit of progress, born of emergent variants; who shall kick down the ladder by which he rose and tell history to go to hell.

Who shall some day take off from earth and be jet-propelled into the heavens; and sit exalted above all worlds, man the master almighty.

And I believe in the spirit of progress, who spake by Shaw and the Fabians; and in a modern, administrative, ethical, and social organization; in the isolation of saints, the treatment of complexes, joy through health, and destruction of the body by cremation (with music while it burns), and then I've had it.

-Dorothy Sayers. "Selections from the Pantheon Papers." in The Whimsical Christian. (10)