We Are

We were channel-surfing last night and came across an interview with Tom Shadyac, director of films like Ace Ventura, Patch Adams, and Bruce Almighty. He was talking about his new documentary =>

The Film | I AM The Documentary | Official Site

I couldn't help but see a parallel between what he has been through and what many of us with Meniere's have felt at times. Coping with a life-altering condition can end up resulting in a paradigm shift that can lead to something very positive and worthwhile.

Here's a clip from the site basically summarizing the part of the interview I saw:

But, at this critical juncture, Shadyac suffered an injury that changed everything. “In 2007, I got into a bike accident which left me with Post Concussion Syndrome, a condition where the symptoms of the original concussion don’t go away.” These symptoms include intense and painful reactions to light and sound, severe mood swings, and a constant ringing sound in the head. Shadyac tried every manner of treatment, traditional and alternative, but nothing worked. He suffered months of isolation and pain, and finally reached a point where he welcomed death as a release. “I simply didn’t think I was going to make it,” he admits.

But, as Shadyac wisely points out, “Death can be a very powerful motivator.” Confronting his own mortality, he asked himself, “If this is it for me – if I really am going to die – what do I want to say before I go? What will be my last testament?” It was Shadyac’s modern day dark night of soul and out of it, I AM was born. Thankfully, almost miraculously, his PCS symptoms began to recede, allowing him to travel and use his movie-making skills to explore the philosophical questions that inhabited him, and to communicate his findings in a lively, humorous, intellectually-challenging, and emotionally-charged film.

And a clip from The Oprah Show.