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How to Survive a Summer Cold

July 31, 2011 •

A few days ago a new Vita­Mix 5200 arrived on our doorstep, fol­lowed within hours by the onset of a bad sum­mer cold. Per­fect tim­ing.

The quest for well­ness

Since then I’ve been liv­ing on fruit smooth­ies and roasted gar­lic soup. The Vita­Mix has offered a refresh­ing way to deal with the unpleas­ant side-effects of a nasty cold. I’ve also tried other uncon­ven­tional reme­dies.

My friend Jenny brought a box of Well­ness Fizz tablets, Vitamin‑C plus herbal sup­ple­ments to dis­solve in warm water. Con­sumed 3 or 4 times a day, Well­ness Fizz claims to boost the immune sys­tem’s abil­ity to fight back. Even so I’ve had to resort to Zicam, decon­ges­tants, restora­tive yoga and lots of sleep…

No mir­a­cle cures, only mod­est relief — but I’ve found some pleas­ant dis­trac­tions.

With the Help of a Few Good Books

When too ill to social­ize, exer­cise or work, lis­ten­ing to jazz and clas­si­cal music can be won­der­fully dis­tract­ing. Like­wise a good book or a riv­et­ing movie. Forced to slow down while recov­er­ing, I’ve found time for some fine books.

I loved Camilla Gib­b’s The Beauty of Human­ity Move­ment: A Novel.  Set in Viet­nam, the story intro­duces an aging cook — an itin­er­ant street ven­dor — famous through­out Hanoi for his phở. You learn about Old Man Hung, his his­tory, the proper way to make a bowl of phở — and the expe­ri­ences and peo­ple who’ve touched his life over the years. The story is richly embell­ished with the details of every­day life in Hanoi, thanks to the author’s back­ground as a social anthro­pol­o­gist. You can almost smell the lemon­grass and cilantro on every page…

From Viet­nam to Paris, in just a few hun­dred pages.

“It’s so lovely here it hurts.” — Ernest Hem­ing­way, 1922

This week­end I immersed myself in 1920s Paris with the Lost Gen­er­a­tion, thanks to Paula McLain’s The Paris Wife. Her novel deals with Ernest Hem­ing­way’s early strug­gles to become an author, and his years in Paris with his first wife, Hadley, “who loved him before he was famous,” as an Ama­zon reviewer wrote.

Although told from Hadley’s point of view, the story sheds some light on the expe­ri­ences, adven­tures and trou­bled rela­tion­ships that inspired Hem­ing­way to write his first two nov­els, includ­ing the ground-break­ing Amer­i­can novel, The Sun Also Rises. You’ll meet some of the lumi­nar­ies of 20th cen­tury lit­er­a­ture such as F. Scott Fitzger­ald, Ezra Pound, James Joyce, John Dos Pas­sos, Sher­wood Ander­son, Gertrude Stein, Ford Madox Ford, among oth­ers.

After a vic­ar­i­ous week­end in Paris with artists and famous writ­ers, I’m anx­ious to re-read Hem­ing­way’s mem­oir of this period, The Move­able Feast — and learn the story through his eyes.

And as for this cold — Enough, already.

About This Blog

Reflec­tions on life, travel, books, and yoga. Think­ing out loud about the pur­suit of mind­ful­ness and well-being.

Learn­ing how to recover from the loss of a beloved spouse, and then to find a trans­for­ma­tive path for­ward.

About Me

Semi-retired marketing exec, transitioning from a career in high tech. Now "managed" by two Tonkinese cats. Missing travel and friends on the West Coast. Avid reader and foodie. Staying active with long walks, biking, kayaking and yoga.

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