Good day, bad days
Unfixed video
Good days, bad days. We all have them. But how do humans living with chronic illness make this distinction when our moments are often mash-ups of joy and pain, insight and defeat?
It's human nature to judge our experiences. When something hurts, we label it "bad." When something brings us pleasure we want more. When we feel relief, we say "good riddance." We long to be untethered to the discomforts of flesh. But when relief is out of reach, how do we learn to navigate the world with pain in one hand and gratitude in another?
When we allow both good and bad to coexist, we develop tolerance and resilience. You may have heard the phrase toxic positivity but what does it really mean? What is its impact on us as we navigate through the challenging chapters of life? Having a positive outlook on life is good for our well-being but life isn’t always positive. When our difficult feelings are minimized or dismissed it is difficult to find value in our truth and have compassion for who we are, as we are.
To be unfixed is to be liberated from expectations of how a life should be lived and how a body should feel. Instead of judging our experiences as good or bad, we are learning to allow them to into a more inclusive definition of what it means to be alive. Ultimately at the end of every day, we want to feel that love outweighed the pain but we're not always successful. And that's ok.
In this special Unfixed episode Good Days, Bad Days, the cast recorded scenes to illustrate their experiences—both literal and metaphorical—culminating in an audio-visual dreamscape that conveys the full spectrum of their days.
CLICK THE VIDEO BELOW TO WATCH OUR EVER-CHANGING CONTINUUM OF GOOD DAYS, BAD DAYS.
So great! I have to say it was really powerful seeing someone represented... having a seizure and showing facial paralysis... it's so rare. I just want to ask her... how are you managing? Do you have family? My own family still doesn't understand my seizures--the impact they have, the injuries they cause. Not a single one came to see me in the hospital after my last one. Or helped after I came home... they just flee or say I belong in assisted living. It's simply too frightening for them. The only thing I have is the other mothers here who all understand that it could have happened to any of them too and so they are right here.
Most of the other people I know with epilepsy are so adept at hiding their seizures, they often hide them from themselves and then are caught off guard. Sometimes you have to tune into the instinctive prodromal part of your brain and let the bad days be the very bad days... I do wish work in the US understood that more.
My intent is not to diminish what anyone else suffers through , while trying to live their lives . But Dylan ,is the one person above all others presented here, showing us the undeniable evidence of how little we understand of the capacity of the human spirit . The only tangible access we are aloud is the visual, the very tip of the exposed. Iceberg below . In my wonderful life, when the depth of discomfort takes me down , I choose to be thankful as there are many who carry much more than I do . When I listen to Dylan , hear him articulate his thoughts through assistive technology . Time consuming him , literally . And what does he so carefully choose to say?
“It takes rain to get a rainbow…”
I read this through tears . It really is all encompassing .
“It's human nature to judge our experiences. “
For just one simple moment of thought , I indulge myself ; what would it be like if human beings did not hold the top spot in the entirety of the animal kingdom , for our superior intellect . Maybe we would not have the capability to make sense of pain or its thresholds, or how we personally affect the lives of those around us. No capacity to judge , ourselves. There might not “be good” or ”bad days.”
Your video series is quite remarkable. I know it will eventually find its place where it will help many to; “Seek first to understand , then to be understood.”