Equations

 It seems almost ludicrous, to use one of Jim's favorite words, to give a man, an engineer... with a genius IQ... simple math problems of 5 x 5, 10 x 3 or 100 x 2 and 300÷2 . But, when you don't even know that you're injured and have a baseline of this is who I am... this current stage... you have to start somewhere. But, it became funny pretty quickly. So I wrote down three simple problems a row. What was very interesting was that his brain automatically tried to use all three together like a major equation. And, I could see the pencil marks that that he was making and the thinking that was involved to come up with a major answer to solve that equation. So I put my fingers over the second and third problems and said, " look at you Mr. Smarty. You're trying to work all three problems together. "How about you just give me the answer to the first one?" And, he looked at me, and he said, "Because this is difficult?"... with this smirk on his face. And he wrote down the correct answer of 25. So I did the same thing for the second problem. And then the third, covering two of the three.

Since I wrote down a couple of larger numbers last week, and just asked him, "what is this number divided by two?", and he popped out the correct answer practically without thinking. So, of course, I wrote down two or three larger numbers, three and four digit numbers, asking him to multiply this or divide that. An he nailed it every time. This is complex thinking. Numbers.

He also repeated his phone number somewhere in the digits conversation. He remembered an old landline phone number of mine, which I thought was humorous. I had forgotten it.

Then I tried a simple game of hangman with a three letter word. And, whatever vowel he was going to guess, I would adapt accordingly so he was successful in figuring out the three letters. Then we went to a longer word. Circle. He did find that more perplexing. I'm not sure if it was the blank spaces, calculating the number of letters,  trying to remember all the letters he could choose, or combination of all of that. But,  not long after the hangman, he looks up and makes a comment about doing something with propension. "So",  I asked... "Is propension the word of the day?" "Yes." Smirk.

This journey. This healing. This opportunity is so fascinating. To watch this very intelligent man, calculate his way back into pre-April 15th state is such a privilege to me. As much pain as there has been, there has been joy. And pride. And wonder. Most of the time, he thinks the facility is a hotel we are staying in or an apartment. And, that illusion in itself has to be handled with care. To address why he is going to bed, and why I am leaving. Math problems are easier. But this isn't about easy. This is creating a total and delecate equation to form some kind of logic he can continue to build from. One small problem at a time until all the numbers fall into line.