Wednesday, July 29, 2009

The Gift

A few days ago "Logan" took an all day hike with friends. (He's feeling great, so, why not?) Upon his return, he found a notice on his door from a floral delivery service telling him that a bouquet for him had been delivered to his neighbor in his absence.

The flowers—which were from a relative—came with an added bonus: a copy of
Playboy magazine.

Not only did this prompt a bit of embarrassment and consternation about what the neighbor might think (although, really, this is a
San Francisco neighbor we're talkin' about), but also, since we're a naturally exegetical bunch, it sparked a round of email speculations about 'what it might mean.' Was there an article about brain tumors in this particular issue? ("Logan" reports: there's one about G-spots, but as far as he can tell the "g" does not stand for glioblastoma). Was it a standard SF bouquet for straight bachelor convalescents? (In fact, it seems to have been a special order). An instance of the time-honored tradition of giving the gift you'd like to receive? Or, perhaps, a sly joke about which 'brain' the tumor has attacked?

We had a lot of fun batting this one around, much more fun than had we just taken it at face value as a gift meant simply to 'raise his spirits' (so to speak). And consequently, it was a gift that gave us all a chance to laugh and joke in anxious times.

That's a really good gift.

3 comments:

  1. Hmm...at first I thought the lack of blood flow to the brain would interfere with the its ability to heal...but then it occurred to me that depriving the tumor might be a good thing...so, read on, Eric!

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  2. Somehow none of us came to mmnorth's conclusion in our original round of email speculation, but on reflection it's obvious--sort of the equivalent of an ice pack to the brain!~

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