On Saturday I went to see "Hawking", a biographical movie about his life and disability, and I could not help but notice certain similarities and differences between his life and my own. One of the similarities between Hawking and myself is that I like discovering new philosophical views and ideas; thinking about the big questions. However, his focus and interests mainly lie with problems of Physics such as black holes, particles and matter - while Philosophy still talks about the physical world, it approaches different problems from different angles. Another similarity is that Stephen Hawking says that there are no boundaries to endeavours, which is the way I approach my life as well. An observation I made was that he has an intellectual curiosity about the world, which makes him want to find out all that he can about the Cosmos in the limited time that he has, a curiosity made more intense due to this race against time. I can understand his wanting to focus on the big questions due to this time constraint and because of this, however small or large his discoveries are, they hold great meaning for him as part of this curiosity, a feeling which I share when it comes to satisfying my own.
After he had an unexpected fall down a set of stairs at the age of twenty, Stephen Hawking was taken to the doctor and was diagnosed with motor neurone disease, and when his family was told that he had only two years left to live, they went through a dark black hole of depression (as opposed to a light black hole). From that moment on his condition worsened, though while his body deteriorated his mind grew stronger. Even through the deterioration of the body, one can depend on the strength of the spirit remaining the same. After contracting pneumonia, he gradually lost the power to talk, now only able to talk through the use of technology which reads his eye and cheek movements. I relate this to my own experience of becoming more vocal, making the most of my voice and expressing things in the way that I want. When Stephen first learned about his disability, he had a renewed sense of determination, wanting to prove his doctors and family wrong by not letting his disability beat him without a fight, something which makes him one of the most inspiring scientists of our time.
The film is a must see as it portrays disability in a positive, uplifting way. It's a big thing to let people into your personal world, and for the first time Hawking is revealing more than just his intellectual work to the public, potentially putting him in a vulnerable position, something I wish more people had the guts to do. It was nice to see that Stephen had good banter with his carers, and you can see his good sense of humour through the way they interacted with him - this is another similarity I found between us, as I think it is important to have a sense of humour. Having a good sense of humour lightens the mood - things cannot and should not be serious all of the time. Another observation I made was that because of Stephen's situation, with many carers around him constantly he had very little time to himself away from the world, which he found hard to adapt to, but he had no choice. I know I am going to have to have carers and it will be interesting to see how I cope with this change in my everyday routine, but I mustn't deny that it will happen one day. It was a privilege to gain more insight into motor neurone disease, a disease I wanted to know more about - it might help me to gain more knowledge about friends or clients I may have in the future with this condition. It's also good to branch out and gain knowledge about disabilities in the world other than my own. Often people with disabilities hide away and don't freely share their insights, but I feel it's a very important exercise to do so regularly.
www.counselling-directory.org.uk/counsellors/rebecca-sherwood
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