Borrowed Breath

This morning, I woke up with intense sinus pressure and pain. In my groggy state, the remedy that immediately entered my mind was a bit extreme. I thought, ‘Perhaps drilling holes just above my eye sockets would release the pressure and grant me relief.’ Of course, my vague memories of high school health class and the few medical shows I’ve seen on the Discovery channel overruled this rash action. Besides, it is very difficult to clean bits of brain out of the threads of a drill bit. So I concluded that a self-inflicted lobotomy was not the best cure for this ailment. I took drugs instead.

So often in life, a quick retort or a responsive act may seem at that moment to be the best course of action. But there is that voice of reason reminding us that there will be consequences for such a choice. And more often than not, it seems, I ignore that voice and react. I say or do something impulsively that I immediately regret, and I am forced to apologize to the recipients of my stupidity. The apology usually goes along these lines, “Please forgive me. I’m a jack-ass.”