tiger blood

My tiger blood still has not recovered from the bad flu that knocked me for a loop two weeks ago. I am still rather unsteady and congested and find it difficult to go more than fifteen minutes without breaking into a coughing spell. I have to tell you, being this sick for the past two weeks has made me remember that when you ain't got your health, you ain't got nothing. I didn't even care about my tv or my iPhone while I was lying dead in bed. All I wanted was for the aching and the agony to go away. It is a blessing to be able to just breathe and function like a normal person. Nobody who is breathing and functioning like a normal person would ever appreciate that. I attended a funeral this morning, in memorial of a former coworker Lawrence. I worked in the same Division as the guy for many many years, and he retired about two years ago. He's always had a respiratory issue, tethered to an oxygen machine most of his days. I think he ended up with some lung infection and fell into a coma. Last week his family pulled the plug. Lawrence is black, so obviously his funeral was full of singing and praise-the-lords and fried chicken and corn pudding. It was both exhilarating and hilarious at the same time. I mean, the choir singers, with all their Mariah-esque runs, did remind me of American Idol performances, and I couldn't help but chuckle when everything the pastor said was followed by somebody saying "Yeah!" or "That's right!" or "Amen!" And the pastor did go on and on, either about Jesus coming home, or somebody coming home to Jesus. By this point, he had lost me to my fantasizing about my iPad 2. Nonetheless, as much as I am amused by religion and all its comedic doings, I have always maintained some sort of envy of its followers. How wonderful it is that they can find comfort in that Lawrence's passing is something to rejoice instead of mourn, that they truly have faith that he is now in a better place, that he is now with his God, with no more pain and suffering and that damn oxygen tank. It's a magical sort of power, to have such faith that a man's journey always leads him home to his protector. Yes, I can make fun all I want, but it is them who have the upper hand. I will always concede this. They win. Lawrence and all his goddesses. They are all winners! I and Charlie Sheen can only wish to be on that drug.