I caught a viral infection, right at the height of the holiday season. Couldn’t fulfill any of my social opportunities and obligations. No parties, no get-togethers, no singing Christmas Carols at the church. Sniffling and snuffling and coughing and sneezing my way thru the night, sinuses congested, hard to breathe.
Yeah, each breath was a struggle. The need to get oxygen - urgent and primal. Satisfying when you can get it, deeply disturbing if you can’t. Of course I could always breathe thru my mouth but that somehow didn’t feel right.
Diphenhydramine (also known by the brand names Benadryl, Banophen, Nytol, Diphenhist, and Pharbedryl) and Phenylephrine (also known as Neosynephrine, Vazculep, Suphedrine Medi-Phenyl, and Sudafed) helps alot. Where do they get these names? I want to know.
Anyways, viral infection happens when the virus gets in contact with the mucus membrane of your eye, nose or mouth. Viruses are tiny, they’re hundreds of times smaller than a bacterium. They’re so small, infact, they can slip inside the cytoplasm of the cell and reproduce there.
“Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea. Viruses are found in almost every ecosystem on Earth and are the most numerous type of biological entity.“ says Wikipedia. Wow.
The most interesting thing about viruses, besides the fact that they only replicate inside another living cell, is that they are actually beneficial. I mean they cause disease but they also transfer genes from one cell’s DNA to another. Like Crispr. That enhances the response possibilities, enables the behavior modifications and therefore the chances of that cell surviving in a dynamic, changing world. It facilitates evolution. We might all still be microbes like we were 3 billion years ago if not for viruses.
The moral of the story is: sometimes when things look bad it’s actually good. We are all infected, all the time by some kind of virus. It’s just that the immune system kicks in and keeps them in check. They live in our gut, the peaceful ones that don’t want to bother nobody. Lot’s of them live in our gut, maybe trillions. That’s more money than Elon Musk has.
Sorry to bring that up. It’s just that the tone of our political life in the USA also seems to be infected with some sort of virus, our national conversation is sick, degraded down to the lowest level, the political landscape is bleak. These guys were elected on fear of immigrants (a totally hyped up issue) and some kind of a fantasy that everyone is going to be rich (that’s what MAGA really means). Trump is going to roll back any environmental rules that would hinder unbridled American capitalism. They’ll lower taxes on the rich people, the ones who control the wealth and screw everybody else. We’re not the greatest country in the world, by the way, but we are the most capitalistic country in the world. The greatest country in the world would be the most generous country in the world.
In this country everything is for sale. They would bottle the air and sell it to you off the shelf in the pharmacy if they could figure out how to package it and give it a price. They already did that with water.
And all the evangelicals supporting Trump - you're supposed to be peaceful and kind, like Jesus in the Bible. Jesus was all about peaceful and kind, unless he had to chase somebody out of the temple. But the evangelicals are supporting divisiveness and cultural prejudice. C’mon evangels, show us your Christian spirit. Y’all act like a bunch of Pharisees.
Looks bad. Looks real bad. We’re infected alright. It started with Rush Limbaugh and the right wing radio show hosts practicing their ‘divisiveness as a form of entertainment schtick’ twenty years ago. The sad thing is, it was entertaining to alot of people. Yeah. But when things are bad, that’s when things can really happen for the good. Strange but true.
I don’t know, this is just my screed, what I see. Happy that my cold is going away. Feeling stronger today. And I appreciate breathing more than ever.
Last night, my God. Is that what dying is like? Trying to get one more breath, just enough, just a little, need more, not enough. tshhhhhhhh . . .
What is essential becomes obvious when we are in crisis. Essential like the community of man without conditions. That’s our salvation and our strength. That’s how we got this far as a species - our diversity. We have been infected with ideas from each other’s diverse cultures.
The truth is we’re all infected and I guess that’s really my point. We should accept that and love each other somehow. Share what’s essential. Being sick can be good. I’m telling you about it. Because things can change then. We can really change. And we really need to change.
didn’t do a podcast soundtrack for this one but the music i was listening to is linked below / it’s the November Blend from Seven Beats Music / amazing
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