Forgetting the Former Things: Brain Injury's Invitation to Vulnerability and Faith

In August 1996 Tamara Puffer was a young newly married violinist-turned-pastor serving a large suburban church. Her growing work with people living on Atlantas streets was beginning to reshape her theology and her calling but a serious car accident derailed her carefully planned career path. Forgetting the Former Things is a rare tapestry of first-person faith journey woven with gritty theological reflection and persistent hope. Puffer writes honestly poignantly and often humorously about her efforts to accept limitations and to reimagine her life under radically altered circumstances. She finds solace in the stories of biblical women as she also wrestles with negative images of disability in Scripture. She embraces her self-described role as a minister of vulnerability in this troubling national moment--as jobs healthcare and affordable housing are evaporating for so many as countless people feel terrorized by discrimination or the threat of deportation--boldly casting her lot with others whose marginalization cuts deeper. At a time when traumatic brain injury is in the national spotlight and many families churches and communities seek deeper understanding Tamara Puffer provides in these pages an insightful inspiring and much-needed gift. There is a tremendous beauty in listening to and engaging with theologies that emerge from peoples experiences in the world; theologies from below. As people bring the rich and deep questions that come to us in the diversity of human experience so we are forced to think and rethink our understandings of God church and world. In like manner to the ways in which we look at a diamond each new question helps us to see a new angle and sometimes a new form of beauty alongside of deep sadness and loss. Tamaras story brings to us a theology from below. As we listen to her story; as we reflect on her situation share her lament and brokenness alongside of her happiness and joy so we come to know and understand both God and human beings a little more clearly. In a hypercognitive culture wherein our brains are assumed to contain all that we need to be ourselves Tamaras story points to a different understanding within which our brains are put in their proper place and the issue of who we are and where we are going is opened up to the fullness of the gospel in ways which are disconcerting and challenging but always hopeful. If we read this book as a meditation on humanness we cannot put it down unchanged. --John Swinton University of Aberdeen Tamara Puffer is a Presbyterian pastor and former professional violinist. She lives in Asheville North Carolina with her husband Michael Galovic and their energetic dog Sparky. She is active in two churches volunteers with a ministry to homeless persons and has served as a chaplain to elders with Alzheimers disease. Tamara and Michael are co-founders and co-facilitators of the Brainstormers Collective a support and advocacy group for survivors of traumatic brain injury.