Rituals

I've had a bad cold for a week. Saturday I was shopping my shelves for a movie to watch, and I was trying to decide between two Hs: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy or Hatari.

I asked Andrew for his opinion, and he said, "Well, you are sick."

Right. Hatari it is.

Hatari is a John Wayne film about a group who catch wild animals in Africa to sell to zoos. No human is shot, so it's pretty unusual for a John Wayne film. I adore it.

When we were little and were sick, we stayed home with Dad. He was forced to retire early for medical reasons, so he was the one who was home. Perhaps because he wasn't sure how to entertain us, or perhaps because he feared he'd have to watch cartoons all day, but it was a regular occurrence to camp out on the sofa covered by a lime green sheet, drink Diet Sprite mixed with orange juice, and watch John Wayne movies. The Quiet Man, El Dorado, and Hatari were in heavy rotation. I'm not sure what other John Wayne movies I've even seen, to be honest, but I could quote large portions of dialogue from those three films from memory.

So, Saturday evening found me on the couch in a modified ritual of those early sick days. Instead of lying on a lime green sheet, I was knitting a lime green sweater. I used Diet 7 Up with my orange juice instead of Diet Sprite. I still watched Hatari in its entirety and enjoyed it thoroughly.

I'm feeling better today. The cold isn't gone, but I'm definitely on the way up.