Comments on: Powering through being sick http://rogerbourland.com/blog/2007/08/18/powering-through-being-sick/ Roger Bourland writes about music and life Fri, 05 Dec 2008 08:47:58 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: Brad Wood http://rogerbourland.com/blog/2007/08/18/powering-through-being-sick/#comment-43549 Brad Wood Mon, 20 Aug 2007 16:38:48 +0000 http://rogerbourland.com/blog/2007/08/18/powering-through-being-sick/#comment-43549 A while back I realized that I would create an illness sometimes just to have an excuse to take a break. This insight hit me when the symptoms of a cold were coming on, and in addition to thinking "damn I'm getting a bloody cold" there was a small voice that said "well now at least you can get some rest". I was happy when I acknowledged that pattern and decided it wasn't what I wanted to do. It seems as if I get fewer colds since that revelation. My late father, when I was young, used to insist that one should get out and go to school or work regardless. I could be horribly congested and running a fever and he would say "Well, you're going to feel lousy whatever you do so you might as well go to school [or work]". Yes George. When I was no longer young I was talking to him on the phone and I had considerable and quite audible chest congestion. Evidently he'd been reading a bit, as well as developing a keener sense of his own mortality, and urged me to see a doctor! When I probed this remarkable change and reminded him of his old philosophy, it came out, although not quite in so many words, that he thought I might have AIDS. He seemed somewhat reassured when I told him that would be extremely unlikely. A while back I realized that I would create an illness sometimes just to have an excuse to take a break. This insight hit me when the symptoms of a cold were coming on, and in addition to thinking “damn I’m getting a bloody cold” there was a small voice that said “well now at least you can get some rest”. I was happy when I acknowledged that pattern and decided it wasn’t what I wanted to do. It seems as if I get fewer colds since that revelation.

My late father, when I was young, used to insist that one should get out and go to school or work regardless. I could be horribly congested and running a fever and he would say “Well, you’re going to feel lousy whatever you do so you might as well go to school [or work]“. Yes George.

When I was no longer young I was talking to him on the phone and I had considerable and quite audible chest congestion. Evidently he’d been reading a bit, as well as developing a keener sense of his own mortality, and urged me to see a doctor! When I probed this remarkable change and reminded him of his old philosophy, it came out, although not quite in so many words, that he thought I might have AIDS. He seemed somewhat reassured when I told him that would be extremely unlikely.

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