Eric Bailey's

Well, I guess I must be feeling relaxed because things that have sometimes caused stress, and have made be edgy (in a bad way) are doing nothing. Either I am really relaxed or I am totally out of touch with myself. I am not positive that it is the first but for now I will live my life as if it is.

The song in my head is one written by my wife, "Leprocy". It is to the tune of Yesterday. Do we really understand what leprocy was? I have done some reading, and it focuses on what we understand leprocy to be, but includes side mention of psoriases. I wonder if my troubles with eczema would be considered leprocy in that time period? Would I have been living outside of the town all my life, living among people who just can't keep themselves together?

How alone would they feel? Living outside the community, not being touchable, being so rejected by those close to you. I remember a story from my childhood with such emotion and yet the only reason I know it is because it was told to me. I was a baby and in the hospital for my asthma (I just keep having to use these complicated words that are hard to spell!). I was in an oxygen tent and so my mom wasn't allowed to pick me up. This part was told as a cute thing to me, but I wonder how much this bothered my mom. When I was done in the tent and mom could pick me up, I would turn my back to her. I wonder from this about the feelings that the family and the person with leprocy would experience. The pain of rejection, the pain of having to let go and maybe even let them believe you reject them because they need this help, because this is the law.

I understand that there were leper colonies, or communities, but somehow I have the idea that it was not really a community. We see a glimpse in the movie "Motorcycle diaries" and there is a sense that these people are all in the same boat, but they can't control it. Boating down the river, almost at the falls.