A Low Point

11-10-2013

You have to expect them, low points. Yesterday mine hit, not seriously, but the effects are there nonetheless. It happens when a number of lows add up after a high, kind of like a weather system.

The highs are from Thanksgiving, eating western food and listening to Liberian jokes; movie night on a Mac with fellow Peace Corps, eating popcorn, and philosophizing on whether “When Harry met Sally” still resonates with younger folk (it does, but “Annie Hall” is deeper, and “500 Days of Summer” is lighter but cute).

The lows come after everyone leaves, your back hurts from sitting in a plastic chair for over 2 ½ hours listening to Liberian jokes most of them you don’t understand some pointed at your homeland, having no running water for over four days and living out of a bucket (it’s still out), finding yourself on a campus with all the students on break and the birds not signing, looking at bare walls with only an African mask and your fedora hats hanging on nails for decoration, no beer, and realizing you are soon to run out of crossword puzzles for filling the gaps in the day. Then your wife sends you a text about being curt to a perfectly good question. The switch to standard time makes even early football games beyond your bedtime.

I know these lows don’t require anti-depressants, as if any are available, but today I am fine.

The cure is being able to get out of bed at dawn and start kneading dough for bread. The expectation of smelling bread bake and to spread lardy margarine and honey may be more euphoria than I can able to handle for the rest of the day. Add to that, the water is back and I am going to the nearby UN Military Base for dinner to celebrate something. My back is back ready to dance the night away; well, I’m ready, even if is just  fantasy.

Really this blog post is for me. If you read it hoping for more, please forgive my indiscretion.

I hope you are having a good day, because there is always tomorrow; maybe not always, but for those days that matter.