Smorgasbord #5

Brains, Bourbon, Prudence, Concerts and Sickness

Hello friends! This is Peregrino, a newsletter about the journey. Welcome to another edition of Smorgasbord, a self-service buffet of ideas. If you’re new here, welcome! It’s good to have you. If you haven’t subscribed, I will make it easy for you to do so; click the button below.

We took family pictures this week; here’s a preview the photographer sent us.

Alright, let’s jump right into it.

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Total Recall

I learned that there are people who remember every day of their lives from age ten onward. What these people have in common is that their caudate nucleus, a part of the brain vital for storing and processing memories, is seven times bigger than the average person. If this is not a superpower, I don’t know what is.

The drawback, one of them said, is that they seem to be unable to forget. This makes it difficult for them to move on and get closure. If you can re-live a traumatic situation and conjure up the memories of certain events, how do you move on if it always feels fresh?

For the rest of us, we will have to write a summary of the day or week. That is until we can get real-life NZT.

Collectible

On Saturday night, a group of men—including a couple of priest friends—got together for drinks and cigars. A bottle of Blanton’s Bourbon was opened. I had seen this bottle before but failed to recognize a couple of things: 1. That this is the original single-barrel Bourbon Whiskey. 2. Every bottle has a different Horse Stopper. There are eight of them, and they are collectible.

I had some of it, neat, of course. It was smooth and sweet, and I can’t wait to get my hands on one of these bottles. Maybe start my collection.

Endurance

The gospel for the 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time was Matthew 25:1-13 The Parable of the Ten Virgins. In his homily, my pastor mentioned something that caught my attention. He talked about “endurance in the faith,” referring to the five wise virgins prepared with extra oil for their lamps.

When I hear the word endurance, I immediately think of running. I don’t like running; I’d instead row or do kettlebell swings if I’m forced to do something that will tax my body for a long time. But endurance in the faith engages our souls. I know we’re running a marathon, except with a marathon, you know that after 26.2 miles, you have arrived. Spiritually speaking, we know neither the day nor the hour.

So what do we do with that? We look to the mother of all the virtues, prudence. I’m not saying we should become spiritual preppers, but maybe we should start thinking about preparedness as the beginning of prudence. How’s your prayer life going? Is there something you could do that would make it better? Is there something you could stop doing that would make it better? What’s going to help in the long run? These are the questions I’ve been asking myself.

Rawayana

I had bought tickets for this concert months ago, but Diana wasn’t feeling well on Sunday—more on that in a minute. Since I couldn’t sell the tickets, I went by myself to this show. I realized this was the last concert of my thirties, and it showed. I had at least ten years on most concertgoers, except maybe for those who took their parents to the event—I think it was their parents.

I discovered Rawayana, a band from Venezuela, because of another Venezuelan band that’s one of my favorites, Los Amigos Invisibles. The show was fun, but I missed having Diana there. Here’s a taste of what they sound like.

In sickness

I was sick at the beginning of November, and because we’re all together all the time, we have been taking turns getting sick. It was Diana’s turn on Sunday.

Diana gets vertigo once every blue moon, which usually goes away with rest. We thought we were dealing with an acute case of vertigo because she was feeling dizzy and not able to keep water down, even after we tried the Epley Maneuver.

Since things were not improving, we decided the ER was the next step. It was around 8:30 am. I got all the kids and Diana in the van and drove 0.5 miles to the ER closest to us. Diana checked in and texted me she was waiting to be seen. I took the kids to the park since we didn’t know how long it would take. We even ran a couple of errands, and around 10:30 am, we went home to put Mateo down for a nap.

Around 12:30 pm, Diana was told she had covid. This probably means I had covid, but we didn’t know. You know, fun. Dizziness—according to Diana’s nurse—is a new symptom for whatever strand is going around now.

We made it back home around 2:00 pm. It was good to know that Diana’s vertigo didn’t get worse and it was something else. Also, I went to a very dark place that contemplated being a single parent and almost got paralyzed by that idea. I tried not to dwell on that and focus on action. I cooked, cleaned, yelled at the kids—not all of it was positive action. It made me acutely aware of how fast things degrade when one of us is not there to help carry the cross. I needed my Cyrenian.

Our community rallied around us and lifted us up with prayer, which I really appreciated. We also got a few meals and a care package complete with chocolate chip cookies and toys for the kids. I’m beyond grateful for our friends; their generosity humbles me every time.

This was an excellent reminder to live out the “in sickness” part of our wedding vows.

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Sobremesa

1. Have you taken supplements to improve cognitive function (a.k.a. nootropics)?

2. Have you watched the Kentucky Derby?

3. If you had to pick a “soul conditioning exercise,” what would it be?

4. What’s the last concert you’ve been to?

5. What’s your go-to comfort food when you’re sick?