| VOLUME XXXI No. 1 | Narrowsburg, NY | December 30, 2004 - Jan. 5, 2005 |
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Omens, prayers and health plans I welcomed the new year curled up like a fetus in a dark bedroom nearest to the bathroom. Midway through the night, I found myself awake and uncomfortable, though I knew not what demon was about to pounce. Within an hour, the affliction revealed itself–a classic case of the 24-hour bug. Whether viral or food-borne, whatever struck me on New Year’s Eve left me bed-bound for New Year’s Day—an unhealthy omen I’m aiming to erase by focusing on health in this column. Making resolutions—and the ramifications of keeping them Every year like clockwork I sit at my desk during the first week of January and calculate my professional and personal goals for the year. It’s office policy. I add my own rule to the mix: And if it’s on the list, I must complete it within the year. So today is list day and while the office is quiet, I have a moment to re-enact some of the highlights of 2004 and make sure that I have accomplished everything on my goal list. In my personal column that last year I note I had an almost obsessive need to re-invent my physical world by completely changing my diet and exercise program. That was driven by a conversation with my doctor about my insufferable migraines. Object permanence in a temporary world Our mothers teach us the concept of object permanence by playing peek-a-boo with us as infants. They do it so we’ll know they will come back to us, time and again; so we’ll have faith that they exist, even when we can’t see them. They do it instinctively, even if they don’t know why they do it. But why teach children permanence in a temporary world? Is nature trying to fool us into thinking we will live forever? Or is it a lesson about our souls; that somehow we do go on, even when we’re not here? And what about the earth itself, whose geography has now been forever altered by a fierce tide? It is no more permanent than a footprint in the sand. Yet we build whole cities on islands of bedrock, only miles from the open sea, believing in the folktale of peek-a-boo. |
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