Traveling Companions

So, part of the baggage I brought with me to Maryland is my hands* – and their persistent propensity to annoy me.  I enjoy some relief, and then live with a flare up – two steps forward and one back.  WebMD and a handy hefty volume of medical symptoms keep me occupied – but cautious. As Mark Twain warned:  

Be careful about reading health books.  You may die of a misprint. 

The bottom line is something in my environment – or in me – is generating an annoying, persistent problem.  (Dr. Barb's current diagnosis)

Yes, I am seeing a dermatologist. During the last visit, I saw three --  my treating physician, and two residents in dermatology who listened and observed my predicament. One asked what I do with my hands. Well, I said, I keep house, and tend a garden; but I also paint, knit, needlepoint, and play in clay.  And I write -- using a computer – whose component, nickel, has been associated with skin problems.

 

He then asked, could I stop doing these things?

Stop housework? Yes, I could easily stop that, given a gardener, maid and butler; but Stop painting or, using the computer . . .?   

I choked back Are You Nuts, and instead said calmly, I am not sure how I could manage that.  

What raced through my brain was the question:

 How could I live without pursuing simple creative pleasures?

Seriously, I did. I can be that self-absorbed!

Those with disabilities have to answer that very question. How does my friend Barbara Black,  an artist and writer with MS, live? Or, those gifted friends who battle cancer; or those who are recovering from strokes? I bet that’s a question our Wounded Warriors and their families also ask. 

 

Associated Press/Photo by Jossy Ola

 

Those fleeing for their very lives in Nigeria, Iraq, Gaza, Israel, the Sudan or Ukraine may not have the luxury to ponder that question.

·      In a declining society we need more men and women to rise above normal Christianity (R. Garrigou-Lagrange, in A Book of Days for Christians by Richardson Wright)

·      We cannot direct the wind but we can adjust the sails. ~Author Unknown

* Spiritual Eczema

* Living with Thorns