i'm sick. la grippe: the phlegm, draining, snorting, sniffing, spitting up blood and gasping for air. you know, the usual. over the years ive noticed a pattern when i get sick. the wife keeps her distance. this morning im sitting on the couch watching the morning news and shes nowhere around (normally she sits on the chair next to me, sipping a cup of coffee like me). i look around and shes all the way in the dining room, standing up, drinking coffee and watching tv from there. a full 15 feet out of the room that i'm in. i know what shes doing, she doesnt want to catch it. i laugh to myself about it. while her demeanor here is not particularly florence nightengale-ish, at least she's not malevolent with me when im ill.
the dog is another story. he gets primal when im sick. he'll bark and growl when i cough and hes particularly vicious when i need to cough up phlegm. its like he knows the sound of a cough which elicits phlegm and he goes on the attack following me to the bathroom growling. i tell my wife that he senses im sick and he'd like to kill me to take on the alpha male role. i swear at him and tell him not to mess with me thus asserting my alpha-maleness is still intact. he reluctantly backs off. but as soon as the coughing resumes, it happens again though hes right back at it, moving in for a potential kill to dethrone the king.
it reminds me of my cat archimedes. he was 18 or 19 years old and dying. i dont know what of, he was just not eating anymore and kept skulting off hiding here and there trying to find a safe place to die. i found him in a neighbors yard behind a stack of wood and carried him back to our garage. he could barely walk. we made a bed for him and doted on him for a while. then our younger stray cat, tiger, the most loving animal ive ever seen, walks in. he looks at poor dying archimedes he hisses at him and started making weird fighting noises, id never heard him make. i took tiger outide. it was strange, they always got along before. actualy seemed like friends...now tiger acted like he wanted to kill the old man (archimedes).
its the natural way i guess, the way animals kill the weak. but it also points to the unnatural (i.e. supernatural) way people care for their sick. even those not related to them. even those who will not get better.
the soul of man transcending the animal flesh.
3 comments:
nice post. i agree with you about humanity transcending animalia. but among certain tribes in africa, the chief represents the health of the whole. when his health diminishes, the leaders will take him into a tent to hide him for a while. if he gets really ill they'll kill him and quickly throne a new king. maybe joe is concerned for the well being of the family. of maybe he just wants exclusive rights to the soccer ball and the food.
Kindly give a few (or at least one) example how a law or laws of physics is violated (aka the supernatural) as it regards to your claim - thanks!
"You may forget the one with whom you have laughed, but never the one with whom you have wept"
Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931)
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