Avoiding the crash

So maybe I’m not dead. Of course I’m not dead. If I were dead, wouldn’t this struggle be over? But here’s the thing that makes me believe I will survive: I’m beginning to enjoy the struggle. I’m starting to take the curves life throws at me and, well, slow down to avoid the crash. For example, tonight I will take the stage at the Flagpole Radio Café. I’ll appear in two skits written by a very funny man who lives here in town. It’s a fun, low-pressure gig with a handful of terrific radio-style actors, great musicians, before a completely supportive audience of 300-400 people. I’m looking forward to it. So it was with equanimity that I greeted the infection that crept into my body starting on Wednesday at 5 a.m. After months of managing to dodge the various viral and bacterial infections brought into my presence by family members and students, I succumbed to the contagion brought home by my son last weekend. It amazes me how sharing a house with my husband as he labored through five weeks of an infection that would not quit did not affect me but the moment I plan to perform, bingo, I get sick. But I didn’t panic. After a brief flirtation with the idea that I would sleep, drink plenty of liquids and head to the gym to sweat it out, I speed dialed the doctor. Just 24 hours earlier I had escorted my ailing son to her and within 30 minutes of my call I was on her table being prescribed a Z-pac. If you have never experienced a Z-pac, it is a super antibiotic not for the faint of constitution. But I had learned my lesson a long time ago and stocked up on yogurt and acidophilus. By sinuses immediately started draining like someone pulled a plug in my head; I can’t imagine where all this stuff had been stored! Sore throat and more followed but I had avoided getting anywhere near as sick as my son had been. And I’m ready to perform! See? I didn’t panic! I didn’t deny! I met the obstacle with calm and good sense and averted disaster. I short-circuited the drama. I am learning. Perhaps life is like a video game. You start down the course and obstacles appear at random intervals. If you try to speed past them, you crash. But if you can slow down enough to see them coming, take the necessary precautions, and avoid the collision, you can continue on the journey fairly unscathed. I just wish I had figured this out sooner… and can figure out how to apply it in the broader sense. Perhaps then I will arrive at the finish line with something more than empty pockets and a lot of accumulated “shoulda, coulda, woulda” knowledge.