New Perspective on Sickness
I'm sick today (I got sick yesterday, kind of suddenly) and while I have all the usual feelings associated with sickness (guilt for not going to lab, disgust with myself, feeling like a wimp for not being stronger than my sickness, feeling like God (useful concept for days like today) is punishing me for my sinful ways and my attempts to get by on less sleep than can, etc etc) I have also thought about my body fighting this disease. It's really quite remarkable that our bodies can fend off sicknesses caused by all sorts of nasty scary (and random) bugs. My throat is hot--you know why? Because my immune system is fighting. I've spent a lot of time recently studying chemicals and how they are sensitive to all sorts of environmental perturbations. The fact that plants--and our bodies--are as adaptable as they are is really pretty awesome, and makes me appreciate my body's reaction to sickness in a way that I haven't appreciated before.