Falling Stars
by Bridget StuartToday's post will be shorter than usual, due to a broken wrist and a truly massive cast that goes right up over my elbow. Don't ask me how I broke it, because I'm too embarrassed to tell you.
But I do have a question of my own: am I alone in thinking they should line the inside of people's casts with the same absorbent, wicking material they use in baby diapers? Instead they wrapped my poor arm in polyester gauze. Polyester. And told me with steely eyes that I'm not allowed to pour powder in there, or insert kebab skewers in case of itching, as my friends suggested. Well what am I supposed to do, then?
"Mind over Matter", my doctor replied.
***
Tonight around eleven I'll be dragging my cast and a blanket up to the old Revolutionary War fort in my town and positioning it at the edge of the cliff that hangs out over the ocean. Then my cast and I will lie on our backs and watch the black sky until the stars fall. It's time for the meteor showers.
This was a tradition in my dad's family, and very special when we were kids because my sister was born during the Perseid showers. I'll be doing it alone tonight, because my kids are with their dad. I know in some ways it will feel strange.
But when I watch the stars, I feel a small and quiet connection to something that makes custody arrangements, my stupid cast and my uncertain future loom less large. And when the stars fall, as they do every year in August, the big universe may not notice, but I do. I mark their passing. Even as they flame out and disappear, they are things of infinite beauty.
posted by bridget @ 11:16 AM
6 Comments:
now that I look at it, my post wasn't so short after all! Promises, promises.
I forgot about the Perseids -- thanks for the reminder!
you're welcome gin! hope you get good viewing where you are!
I've never had any luck seeing the meteor showers. But I did go to see the movie Stardust, and I loved it. There's a falling star in the movie.
Merrillee
Merrillee, I'm sorry you haven't seen! Go out and look again--tonight was spectacular--and tomorrow I'll be going to see your movie!
Hugs, Bridget. Casts in the middle of summer are really the pits. Sorry, but you can';t have that soft, cozy diaper fabric for that very reason-- it absorbs water. Then it holds it, then your skin gets all puckery and it doesn't dry out, and...
Voice of experience here. I had a broken wrist when I had to go cross country to my father's funeral. In the midst of all the sweltering 104 degrees for days heat, we had to pack up mom's stuff and take it to my sister's home. Somebody had to do dishes, and that would be me, and pack everything, and that would be me, too. By the time we got it moved down to the forests of Tennessee, my cast was almost falling off from water and sweat, and my arm itched like fire. I kept finding ticks on me and I was so sure all that itching inside my cast was because there were ticks in there too. That qualifies as three of the worst weeks in my entire life.
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