Ochre Lung Jelly
This week I finally gave up on natural healing and went to the doctor for antibiotics to handle the illness that took out my voice and most of my energy for something like three weeks. I saw a new doctor. He recognized D&D as something his children used to play for week-ends at a time. He remembered one element of their games, one piece of D&D that made an impression on him: the ochre jelly.
This week I relaxed and stopped seeing only the things I wish I had done better with Monster Manual 2, so that I was finally able to just enjoy the book instead of playing the fool’s game of perfection after the fact. Lisa was quite impressed when I mentioned, a few weeks ago, that Monster Manual 2 had entered the Wall Street Journal’s non-fiction bestseller list at the #14 position. She thought it was hilarious that it was listed as non-fiction. I told her that the lists can be even weirder, one of them has the habit of classifying D&D books in the Self-Help category. It’s… almost… true….
This week the US men’s soccer team beat the #1 team in the world, Spain, 2-0. Watching the highlights, particularly the saves made by the US goalkeeper, Tim Howard, I was reminded of a friend’s story about high school soccer. He’d been a pretty good goalie for a team that made it to the state championship somewhere on the East Coast, can’t remember which state. The final game went to penalty kicks and it was just crazy, the other team’s goalie stopped everything, it was like he knew where every kick was going. The opposing goalkeeper was Tim Howard. This type of loss gains meaning over time.
This week a friend mentioned that she had been prescribed anti-anxiety medication three times in her life, each time at a point when she seriously needed it. And each time, despite her intention to be careful, she has lost the medication, even though she doesn’t tend to lose things and has never lost any other medications. This loss also seems to be gaining meaning over time.