Inspired by my Mom’s beautiful accompaniment to my hospital stay, the initial words that I uttered after awaking from the coma/”3 & 1/2 week nap“ that my severe brain injury provoked, were whispered (as all words were, then) lyrics from Aretha Franklin’s Respect song.
Neither my mom, who witnessed this spontaneous utterance of mine, nor I, when told of it years later, knew why these words, in-particular, came to and from me then. I’ve known the lyrics to this song for years, but why it was timely was unclear….
UNTIL I spoke with my friend (A yoga teacher from the camp, whom I met there & we hit it off). She offered me a memory of hers: I had shared with her of me rockin’ out to that exact tune, while cleaning the yoga camp’s temple, just before borrowing the camp’s communal car to run errands for the camp. This was a result of the owner’s and my work-trade agreement. I’ve been on a budget lifelong (though not nearly to the grand extent that living largely on SS necessitates.) I offered to run the errand to satisfy the work-trade agreement we had made & in tandem with gaining cell phone coverage, to contact my parents & SF roommates. As a result of running this errand, which necessitated driving, I unintentionally (obviously) totaled the car & in so doing incurred the severe TBI.
I chose to sing this song at the time, as I wanted to elicit respect indirectly from the owner, who was clearly harboring ill-will toward me, despite not knowing me well at all. She was offering me passive-aggressive disrespect via sending evil looks my way, consistently. This “style” only acts to aggrandize my distaste for any individual whom employs it. I do have a guess as to her rational. My suspected rational of hers (or anyone, for that matter) is unforgivable as it has nothing to do with the quality of my character.
The aforementioned woman’s boudoir lay directly above the temple I was cleaning. Noise caries…
Memories which are strongly associated with emotion, are among the easiest to retrieve.