As you know, normally it isn’t.
But then you’re coming back to life after 36 hours of your guts twisting and burping and doubling back on themselves–like when you had amoebas in Nha Trang–and suddenly, NOT being in excruciating, possibly-having-dysentery-AGAIN-pain is amazing.
Remember that doctor who came to your hotel room? He had that stethoscope around his neck and a leather bag and you said to Ashley he was like a Vietnamese Norman Rockwell painting, but then he asked for a fecal sample and $150 USD? He pushed his cold fingers into your protruding intestines and said you needed an IV immediately, and you got scared…
Anyway. Now it’s fairly certain that you don’t have dysentery again because you can eat baked sweet potatoes and some rice sprinkled with salt without having to shuffle to the bathroom. You’re gonna make it.
And that feels great, right? But it shouldn’t take physical pain or debilitating illness for you to appreciate the well-functioning, healthy organism. You need to honor every day that you aren’t sick with the classic medieval refrain: “Rejoice! For thy meat suit worketh well!”
So tonight, when you rally and put on adult clothes and head to Koreatown to sing “Purple Rain,” “Sweet Caroline,” and “Time After Time” in the Cadillac of noraebangs… by then you will almost feel normal.
And with the right perspective and gratitude, normal is worth celebrating.