Category: Pieces to Peter's Puzzling World
“Synchronicity” means things that happen at the same time but have no clear relationship to each other. While I’d been working on this month’s column, I heard from Nathasha asking that “memories” be the general topic for the coming issue of Audacity.
What I’d been writing about was the way memories affect can affect me today. That’s synchronicity. No clear relationship, but more than coincidence.
The spoiler on this month’s column is this: it’s about some books I recently read and, well, loved. Perfect for Valentine’s Day, sort of.
Being rather immobilized the last three months, I’ve been reading on a daily basis. I spend the mornings reading news stories. Afternoons, I write, and read in the evenings.
Where have I been, what day is it, and why do I have this silly- looking velcro and nylon brace on my leg? Maybe it has something to do with these interesting pills I’ve been taking…
At the end of October, I took a fall and broke my right tibia and fibula. I was over at the local pool, getting out of the hot tub; I usually go there three times a week for the arthritis water exercise classes, and afterward I sit in the hot tub for ten or fifteen minutes.
“Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear.” – Bertrand Russell
We live in fearful times. Besides the usual—everyday—fears of not being liked or getting old, we’re also afraid of being attacked by terrorists and blown up. Statistically, this isn’t likely, but it is presented as a possibility every time we watch the news. It tends to wear us down, like water eventually wears away rock. For those of us who are disabled there’re other possibilities. Not necessarily probabilities—but possibilities. What if we lose our incomes or health care? As those fears pile up, we get more fearful.
“You’re in denial!” — “I am not!” — “See, that proves it!”
It’s been a rigorous month and I’m glad it’s over. I’m glad it happened the way it did. But it was intense.
I got back from the Sundance on Tuesday afternoon. That night, I was in the ER at our local hospital. I couldn’t breathe. The oxygen level in my blood was down to 89%. The doctor dictated “…frail, 68-yr- old male…” It was bad enough being there without that.
