I know that for some the experience of illness (even a relatively short-lived, viral- driven one) brings them closer to God and helps them experience solidarity with all who suffer. As much as I would love to be that noble, I am finding that my own bout with the flu is making me more...well, more animal.
My cognition is pretty well shot -- I try to get from Idea A to Idea B, but wandering through the mental miasma of a feverish mind is like trying to make your way through a smoke-filled building -- so my thought processes have tended to remain quite basic, and self-absorbed: I'm hot. I'm cold. My eyes hurt. My head hurts. I'm thirsty. I'm hot. I do feel a certain new kinship with my dog, because I'm guessing that this is pretty much how his mind works all the time. (He is, by the way, very upset that both women of the household are sick, disrupting the normal rhythm of his day, and slower and grumpier in responding to his needs.)
The dog is also confused by my mother and I not talking to one another. But it's just easier this way. Imagine two people -- one who is quite hard of hearing anyway, and both of whom are suffering from stuffy ears and fiery throats -- attempting to communicate:
Ora zhu?
Wha?
Ora zhu? Wad sub ora zhu?
Wha?
ORA ZHU? [pantomiming pouring something from a pitcher into a glass] WAD SUB ORA ZHU? Doe mage me tog addy bore -- id herd doo buzzzh. [groan]
Oh -- ora zhu. O gay.
Once upon a time I read a book that encouraged readers to write a letter to their bodies -- to enter into a dialogue with their bodies. (It was written in the 70's, when the assumption may have been that you'd be reading it while chewing on one of those funny mushrooms that don't come out of a can.) I think if I wrote a letter to my body right at this moment, the resulting missive would be unprintable here.
5 comments:
ora zhu...
Even when you're ill, you crack me up.
Feel better LC!
And by the way, thanks for sponsoring The Text This Week this week!
Oh, LC,
I am so sorry you are feeling so poorly. Flu is no fun at all.
Your comment about finding the animal self is true, isn't it? Labor was like that. I expected it to be all spiritual and stuff and by the end of it I was just mammal giving birth. There is, though, a certain spirituality in getting out of one's head and into the flesh.
You'll be in my prayers for a speeding recovery. Your partner too!
Love+
Rachel
Thanks, all.
Pssst...Rachel...I'm writing about my mom. Actually, this is one of those occasions when I'm actually glad that I'm single, because I make a really bad patient, and I wouldn't want to inflict that on anyone else. It's bad enough that I inflict myself on my mother, but she's had a couple of decades of practice. I once heard a comedian talk about how some people are like dogs when they get sick and want lots of fawning attention, while some people are like cats and just want to crawl under the porch and die; I'm definitely in the cat-under-the-porch category.
Oh, LOL!
That is even worse when your mom is sick too! Who is going to reach under the porch with a cup of hot soup?
Love+
Rachel
My dad always swears that ora zhu and seben ump makes him feel better. Doesn't matter what's making him feel bad, this is what his mama gave him when he was a little boy and he still finds comfort in it.
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