I was wrong. I realise it now. I was mistaken.It's nothing at all to do with the cobra woman. It's not that the hits keep on coming. It's something else entirely. And now I know, Candide-like, that nothing could possibly be better in this best of all possible worlds.
The year had been going swimmingly. A super Easter break in Ljubljana, a fantastically feel-good production of The Bald Prima Donna, and a fabulous adventure in India with a most delightful companion. So what happened on the way round Rajasthan that changed things, then?
It's well obvious, innit? In Jodhpur, I bought myself a camel-bone Ganesha. This particular deity is known to be the remover of obstacles. So let us consider.
(a) Contracting salmonella. This prevented me from going to Japan, and thereby (1) gave me an extra week's holiday; (2) gave me time to post my India photos on Flickr; and (3) saved me money for (b1).
(b) Dislocating my shoulder. This (1) gave me the opportunity to go to Finland's leading shoulder surgeon and arrange for a problem that has been bugging me for years to be fixed; (2) gave me time to sit back and consider the direction of my life; and (3) forced me to step down from acting in the autumn, thus giving me a chance to learn something new and fill a gaping hole in the backstage crew.
(c) Finding tiles lifting from my bathroom walls. This (1) persuaded me to tackle the problem of a couple of other tiles that were troublesome; (2) confirmed my bathroom walls as properly dry; and (3) gave me half a bathroom wall that looks almost new.
(d) Having my 40th birthday occupational health check. This (1) helped me to identify a previously undiagnosed ear infection; (2) gave me the opportunity for a free blood-test check-up; and (3) allowed my doctor to decide to hack some bits off to prove that I'm healthy.
Points (b1), (d2), and (d3) are still in the future. More on those later, maybe. But, hey, no more negative thinking. What can possibly go wrong when Ganesha is removing one's obstacles in this best of all possible years in this best of all possible worlds?
3 comments:
This made me smile - Ganesh makes an appearance in my book, but he is only made of pewter, nothing as fine as camel-bone! Hope the shoulder is okay . . .
Nope. Doesn't work for me, Kanikoski. I feel you are maybe letting the team down, somewhat, with this super positive outlook. I'm not sure, right enough, who this "team" are, exactly, but you should feel sure that they are a miserable bunch of no-hopers and that I play up front for them.
Better, I feel, to accentuate the negative, because this serves to make the fleetingly rare positives seem extra surprising and special. That's the theory, anyway, and it definitely doesn't work in practise - you have my word on that.
Still, I can't help feeling that it is a better approach than the one you've adopted here. You do realise, I hope, that by looking on the bright side and milking the positives for all they are worth, you run the very real risk of becoming content and happy? No-one likes to see that in a man, Kanikoski, no-one.
Mend your ways, there's a good chap.
Kind regards etc....
TPE
(PS. I've been following your shoulder woes, by the way. Nasty. I hope to goodness you get everything sorted once and for all, Mr K.)
(Hi NMJ)
Hi nmj,
Hi TPE,
excellent to see you both visiting here. Thank you for the wishes.
Don't worry, TPE, there was a guy next to me on the train today, poking me in the ribs with his rucksack. I felt a big surge of the familiar grumpiness and bad-temper returning, and am sure that it won't be long until I am fully back in curmudgeon mode.
Content and happy? Pah!
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