Tuesday, January 10, 2017

the comfort of fish


There's something deeply calming about these fish (at the Southwest Acupuncture College, in Santa Fe).  Whereas the ostensible purpose of my visit had to do with my re-flared-up rotator cuff (I suspect the relict of a long-ago ski injury - it's certainly been painful enough of late to prevent me from even contemplating the fresh snow up there), it also calmed me down ... well, maybe it wasn't just the fish: maybe it was the spiking, and the being prodded with burning incense, and the foot sauna - the wonderful foot sauna.  Who knew that my shoulder was quite manifestly attached to so many other parts of me?  But I'll give the fish some credit, too: being Piscean, I always think they help a good deal.

And calmness, concentration, focus ... all lasted into this evening, when I succumbed to weeping in front of the TV at watching Obama's farewell speech, which had all the strengths (the high-mindedness, the inclusive rhetoric, the forward-looking-ness) and all the weaknesses (the high-mindedness, the inclusive rhetoric) of his presidency.  Not I think that these are bad things, of course, and yes, he did talk about the importance of democracy, a free press, and the rest of it.  But something with just a little more partisan bite, given the sheer inconceivable awfulness of his successor, wouldn't have come amiss.

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