Sickness and Reading

It is inevitable that at least once in my stay in Mexico I will get sick. The more often I come here, the less often I get sick. But it happens. I always keep a supply of pepto bismo in my bathroom. One of the topics of conversation I hear in Mexico is people trying to trace the source of their illnesses. If they can be traced to a particular restaurant, word gets around quickly. Maybe that is one of the reasons so many restaurants don't make it here. Always new ones are opening and closing.

When I first came here I always soaked my veggies in the purification solution. I don't bother to do that now. I think my illness had to do with steak too raw last night in a restaurant. But who knows. That is just an idle game we play to pass the time until we are well again.

I hope to be well by tomorrow. This is a light case. My friend Don was dangerously sick for almost two weeks here. He is finally coming around and gaining back the weight.

Maybe, like the song, I was just having Too Much Fun and this illness was a way to make me spend the day at home. I have been sitting in the sunshine and reading an interesting book by Annie Dillard, The Writing Life. I am copying a short passage from it:

"Admire the world for never ending on you--as you would admire an opponent, without taking your eyes from him, or walking away.

One of the few things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book, or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now. The impulse to save something good for a better place later is the signal to spend it now. Something more will arise for later, something better. These things fill from behind, from beneath, like well water. Similarly, the impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful, it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes."

I hope that you find inspiration in those words too.They could just be about living our lives. I see part of it for me to be about hoarding information on this area of Mexico. I am still getting comments from friends saying, Don't let people know about this place. It will be ruined. I am enjoying Anne Dillard's book tremendously.