Word: stroke
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Surprisingly, what would normally be considered a harrowing brush with death proved a transporting spiritual awakening. As a result of her stroke, Taylor found herself in a transcendental state, stripped of the burdens of normal consciousness. Freed from the need to worry or analyze, she attained something resembling the Buddhist and Hindu conception of Nirvana: a complete denial of self through the cessation of desire. After a long period of recovery, she now claims to be able to escape the demands of her left lobe at will. Living in a brightly colored house in Indiana, she serves as a prophet...
...Tree for this modern-day Buddha. Harvard is probably one of the most left-brained places in the world. Nirvana and self-cessation do not blend well with the hypercompetitive, ego-driven culture that is cultivated at this bastion of the protestant ethic and spirit of capitalism. Before her stroke, Taylor was very much a part of the Harvard ethos, a neuroscientist who, according to her colleagues, displayed none of the mysticism that would characterize her future. But the tiniest of biological accidents changed...
Harvard students, more than anyone else, could probably use the reminder that our minds and our selves are not quite as essential as we might like to imagine. Whether Taylor is a Buddha or just a debilitated stroke victim, during this week of honoring personal achievement, perhaps we should all consider, at least for a moment, the extent to which the forces that push us ever-onward with seemingly infinite force are no more immutable than so many neurons, waiting for a blood vessel to burst...
...past year, however, Eisenhower’s national prestige has sunk appreciably due both to his “lame-duck” presidency and to decreased activity since his November stroke. At the same time the Administration has been buffeted by the strongest criticism of its five years over questions of national defense and the current economic recession...
...McCain's health is that 11% of American males 71 or older have dementia of one kind or another, according to a comprehensive study published late last year. This is not a partisan statistic. If Hillary Clinton or Obama had a decent chance of having a heart attack or stroke in office, would this be something the electorate had a legitimate interest in? Signs and symptoms of dementia include memory loss and difficulty with language and learning new things. As a health professional with years of experience in this area, I call on McCain to undergo testing to verify...