Denman Waldo Ross:
Portrait of a Young Man (19th-20th century)

"Maybe by tomorrow …"

At best, Better seems to be an incremental element, difficult to assess. The Muse asks if I feel Better today, and the best I can muster in response tends to be a lackluster "Maybe." I must measure altogether too much to draw any more definitive conclusion. I definitely felt better a few moments ago, but then my nose started running again just after I'd considered that portion of the program finished. It's fits and starts with plenty of backsliding. At best, I might be easing into Better, but I have not quite arrived there yet. I've heard stories of some people with cold-like symptoms taking weeks to finally resolve their situations. What began as no more than a slightly annoying tickle in my throat seemed to take the long route through and back out of this host organism. It's been so long, with the Damned Pandemic and all, since I had a cold that I'd entirely forgotten what the experience entailed. They sure do seem to be long-tailed infections.

I seem to remember that the sneezing represents a virus' last attempt to survive. The bug attempts extraterrestrial infection if the host has built up adequate defenses. It splatters itself on every shiny surface and tries to hop between prospective hosts like rockets. The Kleenex® box gets emptied fast. That cough, almost if not entirely finally cleared up, might sometimes re-emerge since it, too, can launch the virus across practically any room. Best, I figure, to just lay low. After four years of Damned Pandemic experience, my sequestering skills approach expert status. I know how to make myself scarce. The cats consent to console me, seeming to understand precisely what I need. Am I allergic, or is the cold still hanging on?

Life often seems comprised of incremental elements, difficult to assess, like Better and best. Long ago, I gave up on striving for the best since it seemed impossible to assess, if only due to an unavoidable absence of comparables. Best would have to stand head and shoulders above, but even then, things tend to come in other than parallel forms. The tallest might only sometimes correlate to the best, for instance. Bests tend toward the situational. What sure seemed best under one set of conditions might seem worse under others. When trying to assess, I've apparently never actually experienced best even once, as useless as my presumed experience tends to be. Good enough might better serve whatever I seek when searching for the best. I might be able to accurately determine which seems Better without ever definitively determining which was best. If Better's incremental, best seems essentially impossible to assess.

I can feel better without feeling well. I felt different yesterday morning, so much better that I first mistook my state for well, fully recovered. Then, one by one, little shortfalls intruded before I came to a begrudging conclusion that I might have been Better without really approaching well. Not yet. The damned thing seemed to have shifted. While the cough seemed less prominent, the previously absent sneezing predominated. The buzz in my head had not left but changed frequency instead. I hadn't noticed at first. That fever, minor though it might have been, also seems to have broken, but my head still feels distinctly foggy this morning. I guess I'd Better just lay low for another day. Maybe by tomorrow whatever this was will have gone away.

©2024 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

Tags: #iAlogue , #PureSchmaltz