Mensis horribilis (Roses Blue)

Before the operation: Sean's knee-cap in two

It was about a month ago then that things started to go badly wrong. If I can still correctly order the events: first, I was hospitalized for three days with some severe (but still undiagnosed) stomach-bug; Then I lost my wallet: for the second time in three years it was left on the roof of the car when I drove off. Then, on the morning of my conference-trip to Vietnam, Julian fell at school and cut open his eyebrow, which required 5 stitches. So far, so bad, until last Tuesday, when Sean fell on?/off?/by? his skateboard, and broke his knee-cap into two irregular pieces. He had surgery on Wednesday: in the best case, he'll be back to normal...in six months. Not counting a minor car crash on Saturday and a sprained ankle from running, either one of which events might have seemed significant in other months, but which now pales by comparison.

Repaired!

It surely could be worse, but it still seems that this is a desperately unlucky time for us, a trial rather than an learning experience. All I have really learned is that children bring more pain and worry than is just or deserved.

Some people close to us seem to believe that a family visit to the shrine, and payment for blessings would not go amiss: for citizens of a normally irreligious culture, Japanese people can be surprisingly superstitious lot. But since the people I grew up with take a pretty dim view of Indulgences—indeed, it is this view that has partially defined them, since 1517—I'll stick with Joni Mitchell, and hope that somehow our demons can be exorcised, our curses lifted without forking out cash.

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