Thoughts on Mortality and Sickness

Ugh.

I came back from San Diego with a sunburn and a sore throat. The sore throat changed into a brief head cold that seemed to go away over the weekend. Then Wednesday afternoon my voice started getting hoarse and by the time I got home from work, I couldn't talk. I basically was making odd hoarse raspy noises that vaguely sounded like the English language, or a frog choking on a freshly caught fly (how's that for simile?), depends on your angle of hearing it I guess. Oh and my throat hurt. I had to call in sick on Thursday and half day Friday because of this 'thing' that invaded my body.

What's my point? I have a point, really I do. You just don't realize how important your voice is until you lose it. I could not do my work and I work with computers most of the day when I wouldn't think I would have to be able to speak. It threw me out of my normal 'comfort zone' and into a realm of the unknown where I had to communicate using hand signals mixed with whispers. Digital communication can only do so much, but face to face is still where we as a species make and break relationships. Now I have an idea of what it would be like to be mute, and it isn't fun. I have since recovered, but the experience will last with me for a while.

Hopefully I won't have spread it to my wife and baby girl. We might have to learn American Sign Language then. Or get a big whiteboard with some dry erase markers.

Don't think I'm getting waaaay too deep here, I mean it's almost football season and I'll have plenty to pontificate upon then that some may deem shallow.