Sunday, January 24, 2010

Paying the Piper

It's high summer over here; and when you live in Rio de Janeiro, that's just an euphemism for unbelievably, hellishly hot. And so it'll be for the next, I don't know, 5 months (fall is a luxury that only temperate areas can afford... alas, I live in the tropics). And as it usually happens, the weather keeps on taking turns between devilishly sunny and sudden unwelcome rains. Well: I had to go places yesterday, under a Sahara sun - and so I did, dressed accordingly. However, as there are no coincidences, only Inevitability, I was caught unawares by a downpour. My shorts and flip-flops did not stand a chance.

The result: I've got a cold now, and a fever. Oh well, bound to happen.

But you know what? When I got off the bus yesterday night, heading home, with nothing that resembled an umbrella, I did not hurry. On the contrary: I walked slowly, enjoying every single drop of rain. The cold of each of them, their noise, the way they glimmered against the light from the street lamps, the smell. There are few things better than that.

When you go out, you've got two choices: you can either always take a coat and an umbrella with you, or you can just not worry about carrying so much stuff with you, so much fear of being caught off-guard by something. Imagine what life would be like if I carried rainwear on me everyday, wherever I went, out of sheer worry about the unexpected!

So yeah, I've got a cold now, I'm pretty much down with a fever, having soup (that I made myself: getting sick while living alone sucks big time), drinking lots of fluids and being forced to stay in bed all day long. But it paid off. Had I taken an umbrella with me, I wouldn't have gotten sick, granted - but I wouldn't have had a great walk in the rain. Sometimes, you've just gotta pay the piper. It's totally worth it.

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