Equilibrium established

You know when you're about to take a long roadtrip, or watch a film at the cinema, or run a race, and you're so paranoid that you're going to have to pee whilst you're in the car/ sitting in the middle of a full house/ running through an upmarket neighbourhood, that you pee twice beforehand just to make sure you don't get the urge later? And even then you're afraid to drink any fluids throughout the trip/ film/ run even though you know your bladder is as dry as the Sahara in summertime? And you concentrate so hard on begging nature not to call that you don't actually pay attention to the scenery/ story/ road?

Well, quite similar to the fear of uncomfortably forced bladder control in an inconvenient situation, is my fear of becoming sick a week before my holiday. There is a bug of the viral cold kind doing the rounds and as a result I've been monitoring myself in a very paranoid manner. A slightly stuffy nose comes and goes and a paralizing fatigue has reared its ugly head but those could very well be but a bad case of the Mondays. To complicate matters, this hellishly hot day (problematic in itself) brought along the joy of my second Mefliam malaria tablet. So who knows what is responsible for the as-of-yet minor symptoms. To be on the safe side though, I have been flushing my systems with glass upon glass of water which ofcourse, sends nature a calling every 30 minutes...

Now even though I have been eating my veggies, taking my vitamins and exercising like a crazy person, I am fully aware that sly Murphy is probably waiting around the next corner ready with his stupid bloody law and a bout of the flu. Yeeeeeess, I would not be surprised in the least if lady luck decides to throw a temper tantrum the minute my plane takes off. Because this is just how the universe works.

See, there is a predetermined volume of energy in the world and the perfect equilibrium is only established when an equal amount of positive and negative energy exists. The natural tendency should be to work towards establishing this equilibrium in each person's life but ofcourse extreme fluctuations do occur in the form of a few Donald Trumps and Richard Bransons on the one hand, and about 10 billion poor underfed orphans on the other. This is also why you should feel guilty if you have a great relatively problem-free life because it means somewhere in some other (probably African) country some poor sucker is getting a raw deal because of you and your damn good luck. If fortune has smiled upon you more often than not I would strongly advise you to go hike up a dangerous mountain or swim naked in Arctic waters to go balance things out. It's only fair.

The disturbance of the ideal yet delicate balance is also well illustrated by the traditional forces of pure good and evil (aka the goodies and the baddies). Snow White vs. the evil queen stepmother. Superman against Lex Luther. Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader. And more recently Harry Potter and his arch rival Lord Voldemort. Peter Petrelli with his ongoing battle against Sylar. And Tom Cruise and his clever scientologist mates against...well, the rest of the stupid and evil world (apparently!)

The polar opposites of pure evil and all that is sweet and pure can - with a trained eye - also be keenly observed in nature:

• The fly vs the butterfly
• The cockroach vs the ladybird
• The goldfish vs the dog (okay, in this case perhaps not pure evil, merely pure stupidity)
• And lest we forget the mosquito. Versus the rest of creation because let's face it mosquitos are so evil they make even the other baddies look good.

But the continuous fluctuation of positive and negative energy levels most poignantly manifest themselves in those little day to day pleasures and annoyances.

Great hair days are followed by the ones where you discover you've been walking around all morning with a giant booger in your nose.
Equilibrium established.

Or, to illustrate with a recent example. Three weeks into my healthy eating and exercise regime and a mere 24 hours after finally becoming optimistically aware that my clothes fit a little less snug than usual I am welcomed at Pick & Pay by the first stock of easter eggs. (It's only January damn it! My contingency plan is not ready yet!) And with those white candy covered hollow chocolate ones lined up along the end of each isle like a well-lit runway to cellulite city. Wolves dressed in heavenly white, pure and prestinely sweet sheeps clothing.
Equilibrium established.

As if that's not traumatic enough, I thought I saw the first red flash of Valentine's Day crap from the corner of (one of) my (single, lonely, sad) eye(s) yesterday. But then I read the newspaper and cheating Steve reminded me that there are worse things than being single.
Equilibrium established.

(At least it goes both ways).

Okay, so you can see that I know how the world works and understand why, consequently, I am ever so slightly uneasy about the possibility of a cold descending upon me after I've enjoyed such a beautiful stint of good health and general happiness. I shall keep you posted on the state of my energy fields. For now, though suspicious of Lady Luck and Mister Universe's agenda, I shall remain optimistic. My crappy Monday has already contributed to balancing things out a bit.