My life closed twice. before its close...
--Emily Dickenson
When I first read Emily Dickenson's poem in 7th grade English class, I felt a chill of recognition and sympathy. Surely she was talking about something I had experienced.
I don't even remember what the two catastrophes were that I thought had so profoundly affected my young life, but now I once again find myself identifying with Emily's double disasters.
Awakening slowly from my coma in 1976, completely paralyzed and needing to use a wheelchair for ten years... That qualifies as a life-closing event for me. I did regain some speech and the ability to walk, which led to a black belt in Aikido, a new college degree, and a career as a technical writer. That led to marriage, fatherhood, another degree in Instructional Design, and a new career: working for eighteen years in a research department on their instructional program.
The end of that relationship came when the whole research department was closed. I have been looking for work ever since, but as the poet wrote...
It yet remains to see
If immortality unveil
A third event for me.
