I have a cold. My throat is sore, and my nose is stuffy.
My question is: how can I reconcile this sad-but-true fact with my longstanding claim that I never get sick? I'm fond of bragging in a most egregiously cocky and conceited way about this. I invite sick people to sit next to me, because, after all, I never get sick. When we were asked at CU to arrange for possible swine flu buddies to cover our classes in case we were stricken, I didn't bother, because I never get sick.
And now I'm sick.
I could slightly revise my boast to be: I hardly ever get sick. (Like the song from H.M.S. Pinafore, with its refrain, "What, never? No, never! What, never? Hardly EVER!") And when I do sick, I don't get VERY sick. And it doesn't slow me down much. And I get well right away.
But I think I'm going to just forget this little episode and stick with the claim in its original version. There is something so powerful about the stories we tell ourselves. My writer friend Stephanie Tolan has a wonderful essay/talk called, "Change Your Story, Change Your Life," in which she heralds the transformative power of stories, and in particular, of the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves.
I don't get sick.
I don't get sick.
I never get sick.
I. Don't. Get. Sick.
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I don't get sick either. But I have a deal with my body that it can run the health equivalent of surprise fire drills every so often. WIth my consent, of course.
ReplyDeleteI can relate to this. I don't catch colds easily, but when I do it is something akin to a car crash since it usually results in a sinus infection. I like your technique for overcoming these assaults. Don't...ever...give...in.
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