Day 17: unholy heat.

For some reason, over the last couple of days I've had a bit of a Godly bent to my entries. This might be because I've felt like death warmed up, and thought it prudent to acknowledge the governor of the pearly gates in some small way just in case. It might also have something to do with the Hades-like heat that is assaulting my neighbourhood right now: "Help me God, save me from this unholy steam-pit!". (That's weird, it just clouded over and got decidedly cooler. Yikes!) But seriously, a thought has dawned on me during these few delirious days. My current mission (there goes that God-speak again) is to a large extent an exercise in self-control. It's an exercise in taking care of my body and my mind so my energy can be conserved and directed towards a particular goal. And so far I've been pretty successful in sticking to the plan. But for all my haloed orderliness, clean living and willpower, I am still not one iota stronger than anyone else in the face of some random bug. And it's not just that I've lowered my defences by becoming too pure either. Because my heavy and moderate drinking friends and family have all been floored by this bug too. Does this mean all our attempts to strengthen our tiny selves against life's onslaughts are futile? We've all heard the stories of smokers who live into their hundreds while others die of lung cancer who've never had a puff. Or the centenarians who never did any exercise past walking to the mailbox each day, versus the gym-junkies whose hearts pop at 40. Is the answer then just to forget about plans altogether and roll with the punches? From what I've seen of life so far (and I'm not claiming it's a lot), a general state of calmness and relaxedness seems to be a healthy way to go about things. For me, being lazy and getting wasted don't leave me feeling calm or relaxed. At the moment, waking up with a clear head and doing productive things with my time tends to leave me feeling a little more peachy. So I'll continue in this vein. It doesn't mean I'll be any less likely to cop it from the various forces at play, but then neither would taxing my liver with alcohol. So for now I will do what keeps me cool - which today is sipping a chilled water as the thundering storm clouds roll in.