SECOND THOUGHTS
By LYNNE HORNER, For The Maui NewsIf you are currently in the throes of a sunny disposition, fold this page to fit the parrot’s cage. There’s absolutely nothing here for you.
It’s gray and raining out, and I have the flu. In my face, apparently, which looks like a catcher’s mitt this morning. I will not be receiving any company for a while — never mind that I never receive any company, if I can help it. Hermititis. I’d rather hole up and read a book than serve tea, any old day, rain or shine, sick or not. I’m fairly rude that way.
Himself brought this bug home two weeks ago, laid low for a day, then thumbed his nose at it and played a round of golf when it was 36 degrees F out. Wearing shorts. Did I warn him he was flinging a finger at the flu god and he’d regret it? I did. Did he listen? He did not. Sick as a dog, he was, and home from work for an entire week, coughing and spewing, sneezing and moaning, in turns feverish or freezing. The rest is obvious; he passed it on.
Aside from this rude virus, I’m not sure what I suffer from, because it’s elusive. Sometimes I think it may just be ordinary, run-of-the-mill depression, which I’m convinced — in a rearview- mirror kind of way — had a hold on my mother during her post-menopausal years. Sometimes I think it may just be Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), brought on by too many gray days and not enough sunlight to satisfy the pineal gland, or some such.
Or, maybe it’s just plain old ennui, brought on by a lack of exercise, to which I plead guilty, and the bag of potato chips and six Oreos I ate for lunch yesterday instead of the chicken noodle soup my wiser self was urging. Whatever, it’s exacerbated by the flu, which means you’ll want to avoid me for more reasons than the one.
I’ve already warned Mrs. Zybach, our neighbor, who called to see how I was doing.
“ARE YOU SICK?” she bellowed, knowing I’m hard of hearing in my favorite phone ear, but persist in using anyway. “I HAVEN’T SEEN OR HEARD FROM YOU IN A WEEK!”
“Flu,” I groaned. “Keep your distance. I’ll call you when I’m coping.”
I read a lot during these episodes, flu or not, and for reasons that escape me I’m drawn to nonfiction when I’m not feeling up to snuff. Maybe the mood has a life of its own and will not be done in by anything that could diminish it; no laughing aloud, no laughing allowed. I’m going to need to give that some thought; quirky theories are such a turn-on.
Presently, I’m reading “A New Earth,” by Eckhart Tolle, one of those Oprah picks that aim to illuminate and uplift us. Mr. Tolle is convinced that humankind, if we’re going to turn this wounded world around, requires a sincere tweak of consciousness because our current way of being in the world ain’t cutting it. I think most of us can agree on that much: Things are not looking good for old Earth, and that’s a no-brainer. Either we start regarding the world and our place in it with new eyes, or we’re in for a very bumpy ride — a frightening prospect, considering the vicious and wacky weather trends of late.
Well, OK, you betcha, sure, and doesn’t my current state of mind just love this stuff! (Garumph.)
Mr. Tolle has some provocative ideas about how we can effect this, and I’m willing to do my part. I just hope I can follow him. I’m already having to read some of his paragraphs two and three times to “get” him, and I don’t get that this flu medication I’m taking is helping the cause. Tolle even cautions, in the early pages, that, depending on where our beliefs lie and how open we are to a new way of being, we’ll either get what he is proposing, or we’ll be wading through 300 pages of useless information.
I consider the gauntlet thrown; I will read this book, I will get it, and I will do my part to bring about a new Earth. Quickly, before this flu runs its course, before this patch of bad weather passes and my pineal gland gets a hit of sunlight, my sense of humor returns and I switch to fiction.
Maybe you’d care to join me? In the reading, I mean, not the flu.
• Lynne Horner is a former Maui News features editor and writer who now lives in Springfield, Ore. Her “Second Thoughts” column appears every Tuesday. Send e-mail to her at lynnenhorner@yahoo.com
