Thank you Patrick I will keep an eye out for symptoms going forward as you suggest. I knew you didn't use helmets and I was hoping you'd comment on the post as you always offer interesting insights. Had I slowed a little and been more mindful I wouldn't have crashed, but sometime events unfold in a way you can't predict. Issues of fatigue, stress, weather conditions, and others occasionally conspire to make one act less cautiously than normal and result in a mistake. If I was to ride without a helmet I know I'd ride slower and much more cautiously. I also know that when I ride a fender-less bike I slow way down on that crossing, (so I don't get soaked) and the Atlantis I ride without fenders, has wider, safer tires on it.
Mark On Saturday, March 30, 2019 at 12:05:27 PM UTC-7, Deacon Patrick wrote: > > Mark, > > I am thankful you are doing so well. I don’t know what they told you about > watching for signs of a closed head injury that can appear up to two months > after a concussion, but they all fall into the category of “the world just > seem harder now.” Feel free to contact me off list if you would like, or > explore my ministry website to others with brain injury (I will soon have a > post up there about “I got a Concussion. Now What?” There are things I > found helpful in healing that also may help more soon after a concussion. > > It is well known here I do not wear a helmet and that I have brain injury > due to over eight concussions since I was 12. If a helmet were essential to > riding safely, I would wear one. Since a helmet is not essential to riding > safely and wearing one impedes my ability to ride (that much weight on my > head combined with constant vertigo do not play well), I do not wear a > helmet. A few points, which I believe are in addition to those already > made: > > - Coup-contre coup: the physics of the brain and skull in a sudden stop > that a helmet does nothing to protect against (and likely can’t). > - A head and helmet weigh more than a head, so a helmeted head is, by the > laws of physics, more likely to impact the ground in an accident. How much > more? I doubt anyone knows. > - I had 8+ concussions over 19 years, starting at age twelve. Over the > last 16 years, I’ve had no concussions. What changed? I learned humility > and slowed down to within my means to 1) assess the environment I am > passing through well and then 2) safely navigate it and have avoided or > minimized all subsequent accidents. Failure to do either or both of these > is the cause of every accident I had. Now I strive to ride within my means. > Doing this well can be done with or without a helmet. Riding within my > means neither requires a bare head nor is it prevented by a helmet. An > accident is assuredly a sign I failed in one or both, even if that failure > was a failure to assess and account for other’s failures or unexpected but > anticipatable conditions. So far, I’ve found that all conditions are > anticipatable with enough mindfulness. I adoped the Navy Seal saying “Slow > is smooth and smooth is fast.” Another version of “as fast as I can, as > slow as I must.” Grin. > - A helmet may prevent some of the injury in a low speed or glancing > impact, but a helmet is entirely superflaus to riding safely. Mindfulness, > confidence, skill, and humility are essential to riding safely. > > With abandon, > Patrick -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
