No not pandemic sick, just normal sick; it almost seems like a rare occasion given the last three years and literally jumping across the room at the mention of a sneeze or cough.
As a kid when sick, my mouth was usually stuffed with a spoonful of something nasty-tasting, or I was forced to swallow horse pills for adults (they didn't have much in the way of kid-size pills when I was young, and my mother wasn't going to spend extra on it).
As an adult, being sick is more of a personal responsibility thing. In fact, I usually don't tell my wife about it, or I'll end up getting 20 medicines stuffed into me until I get cranky and come across ungrateful.
I think eating some organic peanut butter that was out a bit too long might have done it. In any case, my stomach is not my friend right now, and it has pretty much sucked out almost all the creative energy I had to to get any work done today. Instead, I feel like I've gone through the day a bit of a zombie, and trying to fend off the general discomfort gurgling in my gut. Normally, this builds, there's the "I've got to do something about this" moment, and then I feel better. Nope, this time it's a slow crawl. Urg.
Of course, I can't write without a topic, so I figure I might as well use my general malaise as a muse. Being sick gives you time to think, at least when you're not suffering or entirely shut down and sleeping. The other thing that happens is that you start comparing notes and you realize sometimes it's worth counting your blessings.
The fact is, thousands of working people get sick everyday. And while two years ago employers were bending over backwards to find enough people for their jobs, now, a vicious reversal is happening. Just reading through r/jobs and r/antiwork on any given day illuminates the theme: managers and supervisors are exacting their revenge with salt in the wounds, lording over people and generally giving a new capital letter A or F to your choice of a bad word. And, in the meantime, workers are working when they should be home sick and recovering, spreading contagion when they should isolated, and sitting in the office when they easily could do the same work remotely just as well or even better with close proximity to medicine (and, of course, the bathroom when it applies).
How did the world flip-flop so badly in such a short moment of time? Whatever the case, being sick and actually being able to get over it at home instead of suffering at work is literally a privilege these days, and I'm not oblivious to that fact. When I first started my day job and career, just about everyone I know thought I was making mistake. Instead, to a "T," everyone of them has been fired, let go or gone bankrupt. My mediocre career has continued to chug on, protecting me from the ups and downs of the market, and more importantly, allowing me to have a normal life. 20 or 30 years ago, a "normal life" was standard. Today, it's a rarity. I worry about that for my kids who, in about 4 to 8 years will both be in the very same market I'm reading about at night. I can't do their life for them, and I can't live it for them either.
I can only try. And right now, I need to get over the gurgles.
