Structual Integrity

In a distant land that was equally (if not more) civilized than our own, a wise old man tripped down the stairs of his apartment and broke his neck. After surgery and the physical therapy sessions with Sumako, he promised himself to think about his youth more often and write parables for his children and grandchildren. Below, please find a passage from his writing. As you will see, his writing has been affected by the trauma he suffered when he fell down the stairs. Still, the man's wisdom is quite evident, through the rhetorical spasms and mangled prose:

...for in this impossible period, which the doctors told me came from my relentless cognitive dissonance, I was unable to channel the vivacity of my earlier years. Still a young man combing the darkness, I was unable to reach the stop lever, I was unable to stop - utterly helpless. Inert for what was then the foreseeable future. Livid inside, hearing my body's sirens yet smiling on sunny days. I knew how to rid myself of this awful addiction, there were substances. So on the outside, I stopped everything, and started telling the inside: "we must stop."

It is hard to imagine a more elegant expression of the hopelessness of addiction. When I read this prose, it throbs within me, and my mind is blown.