My colleague L came from South Africa and traced
back to Portugal. 58 years old, he is short (5'6"),
sturdy, and looks much younger. He runs ulta-
marathons, e.g., 50kms, 50miles, 100kms, etc.,
with his teenager son, almost every weekend.
I haven't seen L sick over the past flu seasons.
Regaining health changed my attitude so that
these days, I often think about the following: it is an
achievement to be able to afford medical care when
one's sick; it's a much bigger one to be able to not
get sick, not easily at least. I believe L has achieved
something better than wealth.
This morning (a Tuesday), I felt a trace of cold
and confirmed it by making some guttural sounds. I
asked L about the differences between flu and
cold. (I had never gave it much thought.) "A flu
makes your body ache and running feels bad. A cold
makes you sneeze a lot but otherwise OK." was
basically his answer.
The other day, he showed me the picture of a tick
trying to get into his body at the wrist. "It
latched onto me in the middle of a run. I felt
only a little itchy at the time. It was the most
disgusting thing I've seen" he claimed and "Don't
try to yank it out and you might break it. Go to
the emergency room and let them do it." It
reminded me of a hiking trip when Tim was in 2nd
or 3rd grade. I didn't know what he saw but he
screamed "ticks!" as we climbed up the hill. My
wife and I wouldn't take it seriously as neither
met the devil in his/her life (I didn't even know
the word). We scolded the kid and pushed him on.
The two incidents made my North America tick
experience. I concluded what almost killed L
made us stronger ;-)
The guy is relaxed all the time. I am impressed by
his humor even more than his running. With a touch
of magic, he could make every "serious" situation
sound much less so. (Garrison Keilor comes to
mind.) These days, I joke around a lot and people
like it. It is not very hard for me to find funny
things to say but I have to be in the right mood
and it depends on the person, too. I'd like to
overcome the two limitations.
