Thursday, January 31, 2013

Travelogue: London - Poetic Justice


Those of you who know me know that I am the last to think ill of anyone. (Or to paraphrase Douglas Adams: If I am not the Very Last, I did so as recently as this morning…)

Okay, so I didn't actually think ill of this person, but I do think that it is some sort of poetic justice that this person who has spent the entire trip eschewing any association with anyone of their coworkers who even remotely might be sick. That's not thinking ill of them - unless you mean I am thinking they are ill.

Often this person would go and sit at the opposite end of the tube from one of our colleagues who had traveled over from Canada with a person who subsequently succumbed to the flu that has been going around. Last night, they even refused to ride in the same car with us on our way home from the pub because one of our colleagues had come down with it this week.

Is it wrong of me to think to myself – and include all you in my thinking – that this person would have been better served by being a little less theatrical, and a little more practical? I have (knock wood) not come down with it but I ascribe that to three things:

1) I got the flu shot back in October
2) I wash my hands and face frequently
3) I take a vitamin supplement, sleep well, and generally take care of myself

I have found over years of experience that these simple steps are far better than the theatrics. Besides, isn't it too late to worry about people who are already exhibiting the symptoms? My recollection is that the germ takes four-or-five days to produce the bad symptoms and during the first few of them you're still contagious – admittedly, not as bad as when you are coughing and sneezing all over the place…

I mean, with the ubiquity of this germ, who knows what person she sat next to last week that might have passed it to her. For all we know, it was one of the seemingly healthy people she moved next to in order to avoid us. Oh well, let this be a lesson to us all! Take care of yourself because ultimately, it is the only person you can take care of!

Wherever you are today, I wish you continued good health – or a speedy recovery!

Don Bergquist - 31 January 2013 - Maida Vale, London, United Kingdom

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