I'm going to worry about winning a million dollars

So the Tuesday after Christmas, I’m supposed to fly back from the homeland (Lubbock, baby) and go straight into work. My flight is scheduled to arrive in at around 10:15am, and I can still pretty much put in a full day after that. Well, a full day for me, anyway.

Now, I did the whole fly in and still go to work thing after the DC trip (with a throbbing, aggravated right knee, no less). When you’re booking the flight, it’s basically a way of setting up your trip so that you get the most time at your destination as possible before returning home. It seems like a good plan. In theory. Honestly? It sucks. You’re exhausted, smell like plane, and really don’t feel like getting in your car and fighting the 405 for an additional hour. It’s just not something I recommend, kids.

So, knowing this, the week before Christmas, I had been saying, I’m just going to call in “sick” on Tuesday and go home from the airport, unpack, rest up and start the week on Wednesday. And yes, I used those stupid air quotes while I was saying “sick” and no, it never occurred to me to do any sort of anti-jinx mechanism while saying it, like spitting or going outside and turning around three times, or whatever.

Sure enough, I wake up Christmas morning with a raging chest cold and no voice really to speak of. Christmas morning, people. And even worse, it’s a Sunday Christmas. Church on Christmas! Yeah, totally missed church.

So I bring this up because of something I’ve thought a lot about lately which is this: how susceptible are our bodies to suggestion?*

Here’s another for instance that’s really getting to me. Peter Jennings. He quit smoking (I’m assuming to avoid carcinogenic-related illnesses) and dies of lung cancer. Another man I heard about this past year who also quit smoking six years ago, he recently passed away while battling lung cancer.

Isn’t it possible that both of these men (as evidenced by their vocal quitting) were worried about getting cancer and somehow invited that possibility in by focusing on it?

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking the cancer sticks they were smoking for decades were probably the biggest factor in them getting, well, cancer. But I think about the idea of worrying about something or focusing too much on bad possibilities and by doing so, you could, in effect, be inviting them in. It’s a really awful thing to contemplate.

So, now you’ve read this, and I’m not the only one contemplating. I feel better. Here’s hoping that translates to my aching right knee.



*No, no. I still think Christian Scientists and Scientologists are smoking crack. This isn't about false illness.