Mind of my Stroked Brain

It is common understanding that we don't grow up till about 18-21 years, although we physically develop and for all practical purposes consider ourselves grown by 13-15. Whilst the body is developed, our mind is still growing. This is not my thinking but recognised by many systems and philosophers world over. Which is why, most of the world agrees that "Adult" is 18 and in most places marriage is legal only after 21 (when we are capable of handling the responsibility it brings with it). However, I think (and I don't know if I am right), I feel another person is still developing then. I would like to call him my conscience (him/ her/ whatever - I think mine identifies himself as a him 🙂) I feel he does not develop fully till he gets enough life experience - maybe till atleast late 20s or early 30s at least. He is like the nose and ears - doesn't stop growing . Every bit of life experience adds to his wisdom. After sometime, he becomes my personal advisor on life -

I have one news channel or the other switched on most of the waking time on the TV - not because I like to watch so much news, it's a kinda a constant noisy company I don't have to pay attention to. All the news channels I watch are live streaming news on YouTube. On cable, we have regular commercial breaks. This is sponsored advertising by brands. They are paid for only for displaying the ads on the cable format and not on streaming. The channels don't want to display it free on streaming format. So I have the pleasure of watching "fillers" at those times when the channel is on ad breaks. These "fillers" are things like weather, political messages, political cartoons or something else to propagate something. I watch a channel "WION" regularly. Their filler of choice is a snippet regarding climate change where different climate activists are screaming themselves hoarse - saying it is critical we act and act now. I get to hear this (as I am not

I have been interacting with chatGPT (open AI) recently. I am reasonably aware of technology. I am certainly not an expert but I don't consider myself "technology illiterate". I find it remarkable. A little beyond remarkable actually... If someone is not technology literate, it is nothing short of pure magic! I know I am suffering from the novelty factor and the feeling will wane, but I am stumped by the capability. I am not very sure if it is a good thing for us though. It certainly is a very brilliant tool which can be very useful, but will we end up using it at the cost of our development. I know, I know, why did we have to build and use calculators when log scales did the job. I get the argument. I however feel the earlier advances gave us productivity but this one - while giving enormous productivity will do so at the expense of retiring our brains. Yes, it has happened many times earlier. Earlier we could remember phone numbers, significant event dates, appointments

One of the very first and very hard things I had to deal with after the stroke was "letting go" . I am not talking only about attachment to things, pretty much everything. Out of all this, the hardest was letting go of "preferences"... Preference for so many things. What I wanted, what I liked and mostly how I wanted things to be done! I didn't consider myself to be very pedantic with many preferences or a "micro manager". Once I couldn't speak, or move and influence how things were done, boy was I in for a surprise! I pity the folks who worked with me earlier... That was really very hard. Letting go... pretty much everything if I had to put the mind to some semblance of rest. It is coming back gradually on some matters as my ability to convey (written of course) is getting better. I have to keep reminding myself to avoid falling into that trap... Can't say I succeed everytime... I was thinking about it though. Letting go of things is a natural

A very amusing experience yesterday. ~ 7:00pm. When I am given a bath, after cleaning the face, hands, chest, abdomen, legs , etc., I am turned to the side (left side) so that the back and backside can be cleaned. After cleaning, washing, wiping, applying cream, massage, powder (phew! feels like a spa for the backside!).  Anyway, after all that, they insert a bedsheet (drawsheet) below me from the back and I am turned to the other side to pull the bedsheet out. In recent times I have been trying to kind of help with this - basically I try my best to turn myself. Haven't really succeeded bur try anyway. To turn around, I have to put down and exert force on my left elbow down on the bed . Yesterday was the same. Except, I had managed to get the PEG tube underneath the elbow. I don't have such fine sensations in my arm, so couldn't make it out. So I turned to the other side - sans the PEG tube which was lying stranded below the elbow. Here I was lying in the middle of a bath,