Rational Insanity
A cup of strawberry tea and a stubborn flu
I am currently supervising the layout of the souvenir program of Sinadya sa Halaran 2005. Beside me is a cup of strawberry tea (Celestial Seasonings) and all around me are young men and women busy with their own individual projects. I wonder if any of them notice my downcast gaze and my very slightly limping gait because of muscle pains - yes, I am coming down with flu, and my strawberry tea tastes like rotten lanzones (I am drinking it anyway because I know that's not how it tastes, mind over matter). Anyway, why am I working despite my condition? Well, simple, I am beating a deadline and when I work, I make my mind go into an altered state to be unable to recognize pain, fire coming out of my nose, and cracking lips - I am exaggerating, unless you haven't noticed. I know the One up there understands very well what I am talking about. Which brings me to the issue of who comes first, yourself or your work?
Of course, nothing can come ahead of yourself because when all else is gone, that's the only thing that's left, so even with the bitter taste of fried chicken and the soggy feel of rice, and the papery taste of a burger steak, I EAT. I eat to get my resistance up and against the flu even when, nowadays, eating is not as much a pleasure as it was before the flu. I eat three times a day or even more, to the extent of eating rice which was strictly stricken off my diet three years ago. I eat and eat to make sure that my body has enough energy to fight the flu, then when work for the day is done, I sleep real early - that is about 8:30 pm. Now, who is to tell me that I have my work ahead of myself? I don't. The only reason I have to finish this thing is - deadline. It is such a big thing for me to have been given this responsibility year after year after year and I cannot disappoint the people counting on me to make good of my 2nd biggest office responsibility for the entire year. This is the time when getting sick is not an option.
Anyway, back to the flu. Before I came to work for the program, about three days before the trip, I had really high fever (about 39-41? I am not sure because my eyes were twirling in their sockets when I looked at the thermometer). I was so scared, because I was having chills, and after the chills, I had nausea. That's the worse of it; in the afternoon, the fever subsided and I was ok, only a very slight febrile temperature you wouldn't even notice - the funny thing is, I don't have colds, I don't have cough, I don't have diarrhea, and I never vomited again, so I am wondering, what's wrong? I probably am a freak many people call a hypochondriac, anyway, for readership sake, can anybody out there tell me what this is all about? A charitable medical doctor would do the job really well.
There is not much to tell at the moment because I really have to go back to the real work I am here for; I just took a very short negligible break to write this column for you guys. What did I write here?
Well, I told you that Celestial Seasonings Tea is a really great kind of tea (especially when you don't have the flu or some debilitating disease of the taste buds)and to make sure that when you go out, you are conscious of the people around you because some of them can hide a flu, chicken pox, measles, or even bird flu very well! Yikes!
What is the most likely thing to happen now, hmmmmmm? So far, I am half way with the souvenir program and I probably gave at least three people the flu without their knowing it. That is unless they have really stone hard immune systems - like I do, and yet I caught it, so this must mean that if I can't keep it from catching me, even more people can't keep it from catching them (knock on wood).
So, I guess the best thing to do now is just jump-accelerate my own project so that I finish it in very good and record time and hit the sacks to ensure my body that my talk about valuing it at all cost is not just baloney but sincere and honest concern and commitment to my health. That is why, if I were you guys, I would start going out with that little slip of air sanitizer thingy that was a fad during the SARS scare - it just might do the job of keeping you away from the dreaded flu - that has no cure, except for rest and nutrition - Achoooooooooo! Oh, there's the cold I've been looking for.
Be rational; be insane... every once in a while!