Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
Matthew Axel
axel.matthew.j@gmail.com
(216)-212-5860
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Sports
1-6
7-11
Culture
12-16
Q&A
17-31
On August 8, a crowd-funding
campaign was launched to help
lessen the financial burden of
Israel skeleton competitor A.J.
Edelmans training in the
2014/15 season.
Last year, Edelman had
four successful races that
landed him 91st in world
rankings and qualified him for a
spot in the World
Championships in Igls, Austria.
This coming season, he will be
participating in 12-14 more
races, through which he hopes
to qualify for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Edelman, a self-identifying Orthodox Jew, grew on the east coast and attended college at
MIT, but a gap year, which he spent studying at Yeshivat Lev Hatorah in Ramat Beit Shemesh,
helped inspire him to join the Israel Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation after graduating in 2013.
The IBSF was founded in 2002. Originally called the Israeli National Bobsleigh Team,
Skeleton was added to the program in 2009. In 2011, member Bradley Chalupski finished fifth
place at the Americas Cup skeleton race in Lake Placid, New York, to win Israels first ever medal
in the sport and the last to date.
Edelman is Israels only active skeleton athlete for the 2014/15 season.
He is asking the public for donations partly because, the way he sees it, competing in an
unconventional sport like skeleton the cousin sport of bobsled can help thwart others Jews
from succumbing to the stereotype that they are nonathletic and uncoordinated.
It is a perception he vowed to fight during his senior year of college, when he was the
only self-identifying Jew on his hockey team.
When we went out to restaurants, everyone thought I couldnt eat because the food
hadnt been blessed by a rabbi, Edelman recalled to The Jerusalem Post this week. They had
never been exposed to one. I always knew Jews were thought to be uncoordinated, and I
realized then that a huge part of what keeps that stereotype alive is that so many Jews fall into
it themselves.
The 24-year-old Edelman first learned of skeleton that year when he stumbled upon a
competition on TV.
I was captivated by what I saw, he recalls. It seemed like a challenging and exciting
sport, and it had the added benefit of having fewer Jews than hockey does.
Until then, Edelman had figured he would join the Israeli National Hockey Team after
graduation.
After researching this new, unfamiliar sport, and trying it out, he was hooked.
It is the most challenging and fun experience I have had the pleasure of participating
in, he said in an interview with Indiegogo, the global fundraising site hosting his campaign. I
was blessed to have been one of the few from my community to have reached a high level of
sport. Jewish and Israeli athletes act as ambassadors of their community, people and homeland,
and there are far too few.
If there was any way to demonstrate that Jews were as athletically skilled and durable as
any anyone else, it was by competing in skeleton.
Firstly, there is the sheer diversity of skills involved: a trying mix of strength, agility,
power, intelligence and guts.
It is the most athletic and challenging sport Ive ever played, said Edelman. And Ive
been proficient in many sports.
Immediately after lunging from a 50-meterlong sprint onto a 145 kilometer per hour
plunge down the ice track, the athlete must calm himself, lower his heart rate to a normal level,
and maintain a degree of mental clarity that most of us can only manage in peaceful, noiseless
rooms.
Any involuntary movement will apply pressure to the metal rudders and cause the sled
to change direction.
Edelman credits both his advantages and struggles in the sport to his career as an
engineer.
I think a lot, he says. More than your average person. For the most part that is
helpful. If I am aware of how certain shoulder positions apply pressure to the sled, I can use
them to dip lower, or ride higher in the corner, as needed. Too often, though, thinking translates
into rigorous planning.
Many things can go wrong at 145 kilometers an hour over the course of one-and-a-half
kilometers and 16 different curves. Skeleton is all about contingencies, about thinking at the
right moments.
For an Israeli to experience those challenges to get involved in a sliding sport at all is
a massive feat in its own right. By doing so, Edelman hopes he can inspire other Jews to seek,
discover, and explore unconventional sports as he has.
Winter sports are extremely underrepresented in Israel, for obvious geographical and
logistical reasons.
Resources, coaches, and training facilities are all scarce and require ludicrous amounts of
time, money, and travel. For off-season training, only two locations in North America in Park
City, Utah, and in Lake Placid, New York have practice tracks for skeleton athletes.
With the demands and responsibilities of life, few skeleton competitors can afford to live
near these places. Edelman has spent the last month in Park City but had to return to California
on Monday to work his full time job as a product manager for Oracle. He still trains at a gym,
but he now has to drive 210 kilometers daily to get there, and although he can still practice the
sprinting aspect of the sport with an exercise called the push, he has to settle for indirect ways
to practice the other aspects, like the explosive power needed for lunging onto the sled.
Under the direction of his two trainers Jon Anderson, an IFBB pro bodybuilder known
as the worlds strongest man (who also owns the gym where Edelman practices), and Jasha
Faye, a former national level US Olympic lifter who competed in the Maccabiah Edelman
practices snatches and clings intense lifting exercises, the kind you see on lifting
competitions on TV, with bodybuilders hoisting heavy barbells over their heads with quick
bursts of energy.
In contrast, The Ice Hockey Federation of Israel has been around since the 1980s, the
Israeli National Hockey Team is ranked 32nd in the world, and the country has at least three
rinks where aspiring players can practice. Although relatively unpopular among Israeli athletes,
the sport is not underexposed to the point that it has become borderline impractical to pursue.
Edelman could have stuck with it.
However, he maintains that Israels near-total obliviousness to skeleton is, despite the
obstacles it creates, a large part of what makes his role in the sport valuable.
Many people who draw poorly as a child confirm right then and there that, for their
whole lives, they can never become good painters or sculptors.
And Jews tend to be this way about sports: a lot Jews gave up on all the conventional
sports long ago after realizing that they were lousy at soccer or football. However, they have not
shut themselves off from sports they have never even seen. And if they can become ambitious
about one sport, that will help to open their minds.
For that reason, Edelman says the prospect of being watched by millions of people does
not make him the least bit nervous: the more, the better.
I want to be seen by as many Jews as possible, he says. I want them to see the Star of
David on my uniform and feel like they can do it what Im doing.
Edelmans campaign is tax-deductible. To view the campaign as well as some
promotional videos, please visit www.indiegogo.com/projects/israel-skeleton- the-winterolympic-dream#/story
The challenge, and one which we can and must confront, is to implement those solutions at all
times and not just when were being faced with tragedy or attacks, he told the Five Towns
Jewish Times of Long Island, New York.
The survey has a margin of 4.4%.
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Cannabis does cause some addictions in about 10 percent of heavy users, Mechoulam
admits, but more importantly, it has been shown to alleviate symptoms of, and sometimes cure,
a number of detrimental ailments and conditions: Alzheimer's disease, Tourette Syndrome,
epilepsy, arthritis, analgesia, and many more.
As of now, the ministry approves medical cannabis for a limited number of medical
reasons, says Mechoulam. Though I hope that will soon be improved.
Mechoulam attributes these limitations partly to an oversimplified view of the drug.
Because there are fewer than 23,000 medical marijuana patients in Israel (a number that the
new legislation is likely to increase), most Israelis have only seen marijuana in its illicit,
ambiguous form. We understand legal drugs like opiates and barbiturates to be synthetically
altered and controlled, but when it comes to marijuana, pot is pot maybe good pot, maybe
bad pot, but simply pot.
Scientists didn't know any better, either, until about 40 years ago, when Mechoulam and
his colleagues at the Rockefeller Institute decided to tackle the chemistry of the then-poorly
understood narcotic. By studying marijuana given to them by law enforcement, Mechoulam and
his team were able to isolate and synthesize several active compounds in cannabis.
When talking about cannabis, it should really be specified which cannabinoid you are
referencing, Mechoulam notes. The term cannabis alone means nothing."
In recent years, high concentrations of certain compounds have been isolated to
manufacture medications with numerous purposes: cannabigerol (CBG) is used for insomnia
and glaucoma, cannabichromene (CBC) for fungal infections, tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (THCa)
for autoimmune disordersthe list goes on and on and on.
Many drugs today are derivatives of natural products, says Mechoulam. Nobody uses
penicillin or cortisone in its natural state. For marijuana, it is up to a physician to decide whether
the drug is appropriate for their patients, and what mixtures they should prescribe them.
There is, of course, one cannabinoid with which most Israelis are familiar, and it is
probably the only one holding everything back. Ultimately, in order for medical cannabis to be
accepted anywhere, the stigma of the high that tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) causes needs to
be settled. Otherwise, it will only continue to deter support from political parties, which tend to
fall into what Tamar Zandberg has called stigmas and stereotypes.
It's an obstacle even for advocates in the USA, where people are much more familiar
with, and open to, the medical side of cannabis.
Karen O'Keefe is the Director of State Policies for The Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), a
lobbyist organization, the largest of its kind, based in Washington, DC. Although she is glad that
pills like MARINOL, which do not contain THC, have shown Americans that the medical benefits
of cannabis can exist independent of its recreational qualities, she worries that the support
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stems from yet another counterproductive misconceptionthat those two factors are mutually
exclusive.
I'm not so sure about Middle Eastern countries, says O'Keefe. But in the USA, 60-80
percent of the population is in favor of medical cannabis, and there is also rapidly growing
support throughout Europe. I do think the focus on CBD [Marinol] has opened eyes to the fact
that marijuana can be medically beneficialbut that is also misleading.
O'Keefe notes that, in an Israeli study, 11 participants suffering from Crohn's Disease
went into complete remission after smoking cannabis that was 23 percent THC. For another five
subjects, symptoms improved drastically.
Just because THC is sometimes intoxicating does not mean it is medically unnecessary,
added O'Keefe. With other drugs, like morphine, it is much easier for intoxication to spin out of
control. Marijuana is a much safer alternative. To assume that, for this one particular drug, no
euphoria should be toleratedthat is simply ridiculous.
Researchers like Mechoulam and O'Keefe are not trying to pervert the medical health
system in favor of some sort of agenda. They are only insisting that it treats marijuana fairly.
In countries where cannabis has been legalized, 33 percent of users are underaged,
warned NAWDA chief scientist Dr. Yossi Harel Fisch in an interview last week. And according to
Boaz Wachtel of the Green Leaf Party, 13,000 people are arrested for using cannabis each year.
Those are risks associated with any drug.
You cannot walk into a pharmacy and get morphine for your pain without a
prescription, says Doctor Mechoulam. And marijuana needs to be regulated the same way. In
most cases, one doesn't need more than 30 grams of plant per month. Sometimes a little more
is necessary. The ministry for good reason doesn't want to allow patients to get so much
cannabis that they can sell it out and make entry into the illegal market.
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extremists vulnerable themselves. Like Picciolini, the Ettinger we know was not born.
He was made. After running into trouble with the IDF in 2011, he fled to the Od Yosef Hai
Yeshiva, where he met Rabbi Yitzhak Ginsburgh, an extremist in his own right. In his writings, Ettinger
echoes much of what Ginsburgh wrote in 1994 to justify the massacre of 29 Muslims in the Cave of
Patriarchs at the hands of a Jew: Its a lot cheaper and faster to destroy the State of Israel than to repair
it.
In her book State Violence and the Right to Peace, psychologist Kathleen Malley-Morrison asks
34 survey participants if they think world peace can ever be achieved. Most said no, with the bulk
blaming the nature of humanity. One subject commented that Mankind is evil by nature.
Another added: There will always be extremists.
The majority of Israelis, who do recognize Jewish terrorism to be baseless and horrific, are
beginning to feel this way.
Since the stabbing at the Jerusalem Gay Pride Festival on July 30, most criticisms are directed
toward the police and their failure to intervene in terrorist attacks, to catch the perpetrators once their
attacks are formulated and put into action.
Christian Picciolini, however, did not need to be locked away for his stash of guns and other
weaponry, which he kept in case he and his brothers ever felt a governmental overthrow was necessary.
He had to escape from the prison he was already in.
When Picciolini opened his record store in 1994, his goal was still the same. 75 percent of what
he was selling was White Power music. The other 25%, though, drew in people of all different
backgrounds: blacks, gays and Jews.
And because of music, we started to talk... After getting to know these people, I started to
realize that I had a lot in common with them and I realized I couldnt justify the feelings I was having
anymore, he said during an interview with Noisey Vice, a music news blog.
A large part of stopping fledgling terrorists may be exposure: familiarizing Jews with sectors of
their religion other than their own. A poll conducted last month by the Israeli Unity Project revealed
major shortcomings in that department: nearly half of haredim (ultra-Orthodox Jews) have no
interaction at all with secular Jews, and a fifth of secular Jews hardly speak with haredim.
Ettinger was, arguably, born into an intolerant environment more so than the streets of
downtown Chicago.
Unlike Picciolini, he had no record store through which he could learn to tolerate and accept
others; thats what the rabbis at Od Yosef Hai should have done for him. Surely, not everyone at that
institution thought like Ginsburgh.
What holds that intervention back, perhaps, is the belief that such efforts would surely be futile.
Gesher chairman Daniel Goldman has called on Israelis to encourage constructive conversations and
debates among different sectors of Judaism in the education system as a way to prevent that sort of
tunnel vision. While 81% of respondents they would be able to approach these conversations with an
open mind, only 13% felt that open-mindedness was likely to resonate within the next five years.
Bradley Shavit Artson, vice president of American Jewish University, reminds us that change is
entirely possible: the two sectors of Judaism are not, and have never been, in total opposition of one
another.
Look at all the areas in which Jews cooperate across denominational lines, he wrote in Zieglar.
If the problem isnt one of a lack of common ground, maybe the problem is one of ideology.
Last week, the streets of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv were littered with crumpled posters of the
stabbing and firebombing victims. And a Facebook post by President Reuven Rivlin, in which he
condemned the extremists who carry out those kinds of attacks, was littered with threats from Israelis
who were enraged to see that the Palestinian community was being shown any sympathy whatsoever.
That alone is a massive issue. Just as we should not react to Arab terrorists with Jewish terrorists,
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we should not chalk up the latter group to the same unsupported, counter-productive notions of evil
that are used to dehumanize the former. Doing so only isolates their followers and makes them less likely
to come across another path.
Unity, compassion and promoting empathy, even to those who least deserve it, is what changes
the world.
Picciolini now runs the non-profit peace-advocacy organization Life After Hate.
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appears nothing to fret over. Nowadays, the virtual world can actually make for a much more controlled,
calm, and collected environment than, say, a sports bar or a city pool.
On sites like eHarmony, personality types are established from the get-go and laid out publicly,
to encourage likeminded introductory conversations. Dreams, weaknesses, quirks, and habitswe want
our potential spouses to be on the same page as us about these things. In real life, we shuffle through
contestant after contestant, but online, the no-go's are phased out almost immediately. We're not
necessarily more likely to find our soul-mate this way, but we're in less danger of falling into something
pointlessly time consuming. If you believe that your special someone is somewhere out there, you're
probably inclined not to waste time on fruitless flings that only stall you and eliminate crucial
opportunities.
In defending e-love, Cappiolo also points out a correlation between traditional couples and
impulsivity, meaning the tendency to pop the question too early, without thinking hard enough. The
biggest factor in a failed marriage is, of course, the decision to get married in the first place. Someone
spontaneous enough to hand out their number at Chipotle is more prone to making that mistake than
your average dating-site user, who likely treats the prospect of marriage with as much consideration as
he or she uses on these websites.
Some critics, like Eli Finkel, reject these ideas, citing a lack of established causality. There are so
many ways to meet both on and offline, that solid evidence favoring the former is hard pinpoint. Finkel
argues that a couple who meets at church ora a museum has far better odds than your average pair
chatting on some seedy dating site. It's difficult to prove him wrong.
Others critics acknowledge the advantage, but question whether such calculated, neatly crafted
marriages can really be chalked up to "love" at all: Where is the spontaneity, the uncertainty, the rush?
Still, as social functions like church become less and less sociable, and fledging romantics
enter sixth grade with Androids and data plans, it's difficult to imagine a future in which the
cyberspace won't step in and take full charge of every social norm imaginable, especially the biggest,
most praised, and most desired of them all.
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SE) Who are your big influences? Would you compare your sound to any of them?
Wilson: The Clash for not being afraid to evolve and use
their rock, reggae, disco, hip-hop influences. Also Bad Brains,
NIN, The Cure, Siouxsie, Blondie, Sonic Youth, lots of HipHop and Reggae. Sometimes these bands come into play
with my sound, energy, attitude, and vibe.
Kat: Wanda Jackson changed my life. My dad used to play
her old records and I thought she was the most brazen bat
out of hell. I love the nerve of her voice. Then seeing
Madonna on MTV flipped me out. Her bold style- I loved the
idea that you could be the movie star of your music. I also
got into the Doors at that time too. I loved their strangeness
and his poems seemed like rap for surrealists.. Now when I
write- I need to stay turned on by going to see an art or
fashion exhibit, or a great play- to stir and deliver heightened
emotions. I dont think I sound like these artists- but they
inspire my own instrument.
SE) How often do you practice?
Wilson: With GND once or twice a week. With just meat
least 5 times a week.
SE) Every musician has a certain way of using their instrument. What do you consider to be your unique
musical techniques?
Wilson: My use of all my pedals to create different textures live and recorded. My rhythmic picking.
Kat: My training at the Juilliard School really began my awareness of breathing and diction. Ive picked up so
many tricks along the way from voice teachers and other singers. Im always investigating.
SE) Are you signed with any record labels?
Kat: Not currently. I have been signed before to EMI and Sony/Red. I used to think it was the be-all end-all. But
now I think there are so many creative ways to market music. I think all thats important is finding people you can
really share a vision with, and expand that vision to full potential.. Id love to find the right label for GND. I hope
its a natural partnership at the right time..
SE) Your debut EP, Doll Drums, was released just last month. Can you give listeners an idea of what to
expect from it?
Kat: I hope you listen to it on headphones so you can listen to all the ear-candy Wilson has arranged through the
production of it. Im very proud of our first effort together. Id like you to think, Aww, what a thoughtful gift. We
had the listener in our hearts creating lots of layers and dance beats..
Ill take some lyrics from the title track Doll Drums to give you an idea.. Let me be your dollaction figurine. Let
me be your bells and whistles, silver scream..Weve got the doll, oh we bring the drums, ennui, we fight the
boredom! The Doll Drums.
SE) Are there certain underlying themes within your lyrics?
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Kat: Its funny. I aim to write point blank from my heart. And it still comes out weighted with mysterious echoesshades of longing, grandiosity, compulsive behaviors, and late nights in NYC. Thats ok though. I feel that it lends
it enough space for everyone to hopefully personalize it in their own way.
SE) Is there a particular song of yours that sticks out to you as unique from the rest?
Kat: Probably Red Hot, it was unusual for me; it was written in a
half dream one morning listening to the sports news. Also- Wilson
and I are big fans of the half time beat in the chorus of Doll
Drums. It makes us thrash when we play it live.
SE) Who handles your artwork?
Kat: Wilson is our main graphic designer. He makes awesome
flyers for our live shows. Ive been saving a scrapbook; they are
each a unique piece of art.. I cant draw- so I pull some art stunts.
For our first album cover, I created the photo shoot set by finding
giant toys from all over Brooklyn and Manhattan Magic shops.
And then for our first music video- I got us into a NYC Parade.
Also- weve worked quite a bit with our wonderful brother-in-law.
He happens to be a renowned hip-hop photographer, Robert
Adam Mayer (Jay-Z at the Barclay, Nas at Radio City).
SE) Where have you performed? Any favorite venues, cities? Most memorable experiences?
Kat: Tours with the Goodnight Darlings are the truest, best times of my life. I cant even say how much I love the
adventure of new people and a new town. Weve played two extensive, rigorous tours of the Southern US and
back up the East Coast. There was that dance contest in Lafayette, the voodoo lady singer in New Orleans, the
cool big daddy club owner at Walnut Street Blues in MS.. its a fun question- my mind flashes.. to desert drives in
Marfa, TX. (We shot a video that were gonna release for the song July there)Maybe our favorite venue would
be SXSW. Austin is just wonderful. We had booked one show and ended up playing four more shows! We had all
our gear on us and wed get invited to play the next party again and again. Musically, I felt so in shape.
SE) Whats the ultimate goal for your band?
Wilson: Make music always, tour the Earth, be loved by not
trying to be or sound like anyone else..
SE) What shows and tours are you planning in the near
future?
Kat: Were looking to open up for one of our favorite national
acts. Were also encouraged and excited by some interest from
UK writers. Id love to play overseas. Weve also started
experimenting with a new secret weapon of instrumentation that
will be revealed in time!!
SE) Whats the best way to access your music?
Wilson: Get our debut Doll Drums on iTunes, or get to a show
and leave with a cd!
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A. When we first started playing we had an indie pop/rock kinda sound, and we have evolved heavily from there,
while still keeping our roots pretty strong. I think now we just have a lot wider array of sounds. I think well just
constantly keep piling new sounds on top of what we have until its piled so high nobody really understands what it is.
Q. Who are your big influences? Would you compare your sound to any of them?
A. Some stuff we dig unanimously as a band would be stuff like
Led Zeppelin. Nick is in love with Bonham and is really heavily
influenced by him and Nick Mason from the Floyd. We all like
good stuff from the 60s psychedelic underground, the Velvet
Underground. Progressive 70s stuff like King Crimson. We like
good 90s shoegaze like My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Ride.
Stuff going on now that we think is cool, too: Radiohead, Tame
Impala, MGMT, Foxygen, Modest Mouse, Sigur Ros, Sufjan
Stevens. The list could start getting a lot bigger, were all really
avid music listeners. I think you could definitely notice a little bit of
all of this in our sound.
Q. Every musician has a certain way of using their instrument. What do you consider to be your unique
musical techniques?
A. I personally have always liked guitar pedals, and what they can do to alter the sound. I like to use a lot of effects,
and I find it fascinating that there are endless sounds to be made from just a few pedals. I can really only speak for
myself, Im not sure what the others would say Sean has been getting really into jazz guitar recently and has been
doing some funky stuff with that. Ben has always written extremely poppy McCartney-esque that add so much to our
music. Nick is always trying to be progressive with his drumming, he seldom is content doing simple beats and
always tries to make his beats unique and fresh.
Q. Are you signed with any record labels?
A. Right now were on Flowerpot Records. Its a small label that
our friend runs. He does a great job with it. We love saying were
a part of the label.
Q. Are there certain underlying themes within your lyrics?
A. I often find myself writing about space or love or a combination
of the two. Our recent album has a pretty heavy love/space
theme underneath it all. Probably cause we dont understand
much about either of those things so writing about it helps us
pretend we do.
Q. Is there a particular song of yours that sticks out to you as
unique from the rest?
A. Not really. I dont know; this is a hard question to answer. We
like them all and theyre all pretty different.
Q. Who handles your artwork?
A. I have done all the album artwork for all of our stuff so far.
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No kidding, says Chris. He remembers exactly what was going through his head in that moment: Hello? A little help
for the dude floating face down, you dumb bastage!?
The dog was not deterred. It barked up a storm, hauled ass around the pool, up the steps, all over the place, and
right back into the water to repeat the scratching motion. Again, the friend pulled it away, and again, it ran and swam
right back to Chris.
So I am told, anyway, Chris says. By this point I had passed out from holding my breath while waiting for my friend
the meathead to buy a vowel and solve the damned puzzle.
It was a brush with death like no other. The third time around my friend did finally realize I was not just screwing
around. He told me later he picked my 180 lbs up out of the water, put me on the deck, and performed mouth to
mouth. All I remember is waking up and saying, I cant breathe, followed by I cant move.'
I had the pleasure of interviewing Chris. His upbeat personality and humor was something else.
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something much less than comfortable. Consequently, I try to always support my arms well and avoid downward
pulls.
Q. How has it effected relationships (romantic and friendship?)
A. Friendships have not been effected much, but it is probably easier for me to recognize true friends now. There are
minor inconveniences that come with my friendship. If a friend and I are going somewhere I need them to drive my
van, and if we are going to be eating I will need help with that, too. Things like that wear on some people, I think.
Romantic relationships have definitely been effected. There is much less physical touch, so the importance of good
communication cannot be understated. Spontaneity can sometimes be difficult, so you learn to plan a lot. This
however can lead to boredom in a relationship. Consequently, it is important to be mindful about how to keep things
feeling fresh and fun. I have not yet mastered relationships, but I have had several and each has been something to
learn from.
Q. What work do you do exactly and did your condition effect your choice to do so? If so, how?
A. I have had a medley of jobs over the years, from doing freelance computer programming to being an instructional
aide teaching voice recognition technologies to disabled students at the local junior college. Last year I graduated
with associate degrees in Language Arts and Social and Behavioral Sciences, but I am currently unemployed.
I do not think my condition affected my choice of occupations, other than having driven me toward the field of
computer related work. There was a time in my life that I was pursuing computer programming as a career, but
somewhere along the way I realized I would be much happier in a position that I regularly interacted with people face
to face, and in particular if I could be having a positive impact on others. What I do for work does not matter, so long
as those two criteria are fulfilled.
Q. Do you receive funds for medical needs?
A. I receive Social Security due to the permanent nature of my disability and the age at which I sustained my injury.
The amount I receive is based on the amount my father paid into the system.
Q. Are you religious? If so, does it have anything to do with your condition?
A. I am not religious. I consider myself a secular humanist, but atheist works as well. I have always had a lack of faith
in the divine; it does not stem from my condition. I am much more interested in reason and evidence as a guide as
how best to live this life.
Q. Have people ever been intolerant of you due to your condition?
A. I have not experienced intolerance, but people have certainly been dismissive. There have been many occasions
in college when, having arrived to class on the first day of the semester, I have received dismissive looks from fellow
students. Likewise, there have been many occasions when I have seen surprised looks on those same faces. I take
education seriously, and like to respectfully take the initiative in class to show that I have both a voice and a brain.
Q. Have you considered or had any sort of surgery or operation?
A. The week after my accident I had surgery to help stabilize my neck. Bone was taken from my hip, which was then
wired to my C3, C4, and C5 vertebrae. These bones are now fused together. The range of motion in my neck is more
limited than normal, but not so much as to be noticeable.
Q. How is diet restricted, since you cant exercise (right?)
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A. You are correct; even though I have limited movement in my left arm I do not have the strength or endurance to do
any calorie burning exercise. However, I still have a normal diet. It probably helps that I live alone and am unable to
raid the refrigerator whenever I like, because I certainly enjoy food!
Q. What do you like on your pizza?
A. You are going about this the long way. The list will be much shorter if I tell you what I do not like! Nothing comes to
mind, but the jury is still out on anchovies. I have not yet had the courage to try them, but a personal motto of mine is
Ill try anything twice!
Q. How confident would you say you are?
A. Too confident. It very well could be a fault of mine, and I will not be surprised if it is my downfall in the end. When it
comes to facts I am very aware that I am ignorant about a great many things, but sometimes one of those buggers
sneaks over to the known list and I have to eat crow afterward. When it comes to moments when I think to myself,
Nah, it looks safe enough to drive my wheelchair through there, I have learned the hard way to doubt my judgment.
When it comes to social situations, confidence is gold. It is difficult to be confident in every situation, though, so when
I am not I simply fake it and forge on.
Q. What do you to pass time, to kill boredom?
A. I love learning new things, so I often read social news sites or listen to audio lectures. There are a few select
television shows I watch, and I enjoy playing online strategy games such as Risk or Magic the Gathering. Lately I
have been spending my time teaching myself a programming language I have no prior experience with.
Q. What are your dreams, aspirations?
A. When I was young I wanted to be remembered by future generations for something important I achieved. Now it is
just important for me to contribute to society so future generations are able to achieve important things. My
contribution need not be memorable, but it must be a positive. Each generation stands on the combined contributions
of those that preceded it. If on my deathbed I look back on my life and think society has somehow benefited from my
having been here I will have won at the game of life.
Q. Do you still know those kids who were with you when you had your accident? If so, what are the
relationships like nowadays?
A. We are all friends in that we are able to keep up on what is happening in each others life via Facebook, but I do
not have a more personal relation with them. I lost touch with them shortly after my accident, and for some time felt
hurt that they no longer came around. As I matured, though, I realized quite possibly I was not the only one
traumatized by my injury, and that we all have had divergent paths to walk. I am thankful to have the ability to read up
on their successes and intermittent musings.
Q. What advise to you have for others like you?
A. My advice to others is to be assertive, to learn patience, to reflect upon what brings them happiness and strive to
find more of those things in life, and to never let something stop them from reaching their final destination.
Q. If you could go back and change what happened to you, would you? Do you think youd still be the same
kind of person you are now?
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A. This question is more difficult than you might suppose. I very much like the person I have become and do not
know if I would have learned some of the tough lessons had I not lived through tough experiences. I would like to
think I am intelligent and reflective enough to have arrived at a similar personality without having had to live through
the same hardships. I suppose it is quite possible I would have become what I consider a better person than I am
today. I do miss the physicality and ease of life before my injury. I would go back and change what happened it
could be overconfidence, but I think I would have become a man to be proud of.
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