Zack's Panacea - Water

So I have been talking about the virtues of water for some time now. In an earlier post, I made a suggestion as to how much water one should consume. That suggestion was in error, I believe.

The alchemical formula I use now is as follows

Take your weight in pounds (metric system be damned!).

This is your base water consumption (per day) in ounces, times 0.5 (if you arre generally a couch potato) to 0.75 (if you are an athelete).

This will give you your typical water needs for a day. If you are in an arid environemnt, you need AT LEAST 32 oz. more. If you have a particularly active day, you need AT LEAST 32 oz more.

Example: Jim the runner weighs 165 pounds. Thats 165 X0.75 (remember, he's a runner)
=

123.75oz

as his base water need for the day. A gallon is 128 oz. This guy needs to drink approximately a gallon of water a day to stay in top shape, physically AND mentally.

Progress

It's a good thing I still go to therapy.

When I think about how things have been going, I see that I am progressing. This recent stress is a kind of resistance to that progress. It's true that there is an outside component to my stress , but I know enough about myself to know that there's more to the story than that.

By not engaging more directly in my own healing, I was delaying my recovery. My therapist told me to "respect my process." It sounded like double-speak until I thought about it.

What she meant is simply that I already know a natural path to allow the cortisol to pass through me. I want the chemical to go without it taking up permanent residence in my body. That's the Tao those wise men in antiquity were writing about. I possess the qualities and tools necessary to fix my own problems. I am now aware enough to know when I need someone to help me. There's always a way up.

My process involves walking. I used to walk with The Divine regularly. Those walks saved my life. No joke.

Somewhere along the way, I gave myself license to forget that.

Drink water. Take a walk. Respect your own process. Come back to a healthy place.

I can do it. You can too.

AHHHHH!

Cortisol kills. It is a hormone designed for quick escapes and desperate struggles. In the modern world, we swim in it. No wonder we have so many health problems related to stress.

I have tried to purge myself of cortisol as much as possible. It's been working, up until now. Now, I have that old feeling.

I am poisoned. It is, to say the least, not a good state of affairs.

Music Quote of the Day

Summertime The Sundays -


"Have I read too much fiction?


Is this how it happens?"


Somehow, I think so. Summer boosts my mood, and I suspect my wife's as well.

The feeling begins

Peter Gabriel's Passion is a masterwork. I can't find my old copy. For now, I'll just think of it.

Whatever I do, I need to stay away from that Gorillaz song! I've listened to it on repeat so much I hear it in my sleep.


HELP!

Six Years

Words can't capture the feeling. Those of us in such fortunate positions should be humble.

Today is our sixth year anniversary. Con and I have a lot of plans for the evening. For now though, I just leave things as they are.

My wife is napping. I am floating through my thoughts of all the good times we've had. Hope rides on the sails of real growth and development.

Here's to six more years, six after that, etc.

"Happily ever after" can happen. We know.

Honey, I love you so much. Keep napping. We've got a busy evening ahead of us!

Post-modern irony.

Summer is here, and for some reason, I feel the need to devour novels like I did before I entered college. I'm catching up on past NY Times bestsellers. Currently, I'm working on The Corrections, and I just finished A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. The list of books I'm interested in keeps expanding - Middlesex, Assasination Vacation, Gravity's Rainbow, Running With Scissors, Naked... A Long Way Down looks awfully promising. And I still have yet to read Catcher in the Rye. Who knows when I'll actually get to The Da Vinci Code? (not going to bother with a url tag for that one)

Anyways, the jury is still out The Corrections. Recently, I've been trying to withold judgment on a body of work until I'm done with it, but so far, I find it difficult to empathize with these characters. Yeah, yeah, Mom's real overbearing, Dad's going crazy, my life's a mess, yadda, yadda, while I just want to scream, get over it! Everyone's family is judgmental, crazy and overbearing. I've learned if you just shut up and let them talk about whatever they want, you can go home, laugh about it, and everyone's happy. Note: this only applies if you don't live with or in the same geographic area as one's parents, or no horrific family trauma has occurred. If not, my apologies. The children in The Corrections live on the East Coast though, and the parents live in the Midwest. Keep in mind that I'm only done with about a third of the book. My opinion will probably change.

A.H.W.O.S.G. (as it's known by its author, Dave Eggers) is a memoir that is indeed heartbreaking, staggering and perhaps even genius. It captures a certain zeitgeist about being in your twenties during the nineties in the Bay Area, while detailing grief over parental loss, as well as the joys and stresses of parenthood. The book's nonlinear stream-of-consciousness narrative is often smugly self-referential, but because Eggers can be self-deprecating, hilarious and nakedly genuine, he can been forgiven. Zack often complains that irony is overused nowadays. I think that for the most part, he's right. But when used properly as a literary device, it can be extremely effective. The book's first chapter, for example, begins with his beloved mother's last trip to the hospital as she's dying of stomach cancer on New Year's Eve. Eggers doesn't try to gloss over the ugliness of the disease, nor does he oversentimentalize the experience. The next chapter begins with Eggers coaching his little 8-year old brother, of whom he's assumed parental duties over, to sing Journey as they drive along the 101. The contrast makes Eggers' grief over his mother's death all the more powerful, while highlighting his use of wit and irony as a tool to deal with the tragedy that has befallen his family.

How very postmodern. I highly recommend this book. I have passed it on to Zack. If you haven't read it yet, you can borrow it after Zack's done.