Hippopotamus

[kate_schaefer]

You know the bit about the medieval alchemist who could change lead to gold, as long as he didn't think about a hippopotamus during the process? For many months now, I've had a hippopotamus on my mind. Yesterday, for the first time since the hippopotamus first showed up, I didn't think about the hippopotamus at all.

Today I felt slightly guilty that I had forgotten the hippopotamus for a bit, but damn, it took up a lot of space in my head, and it's not like I don't still care about the hippopotamus; it's just that I'm not thinking about it all the time any more. Tomorrow, perhaps, I'll look at turning lead to gold.

Comments

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

Congratulations!

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

[johnaegard.livejournal.com]

(Apologies in advance if this is an indelicate response to this post; it's just that I've been looking for an occasion to use this hippo postcard FOR SO DAMN LONG...)

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

There is nothing indelicate about a hippopotamus. That hippopotamus, for instance, is wondering when its interlocutor will stop thinking and begin acting, perhaps to move the pound of food from your icon to a more appropriate and convenient location.

[kateyule.livejournal.com]

I keep reading that as hippocampus. And now, thanks to googling around when I should be headed for bed, I know that (a) the hippocampus is important for memory acquisition, and (b) there is, inexplicably, no U.S. university or college whose mascot is the Hippo. Thus there is no Hippo Campus.

Yeah, yeah, I'm going, I'm going.

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

A) I groaned, but quietly.

B) The first time I glanced at my entry after reading your comment, I read "hippopotamus" as "hippocampus." There is too a hippocampus, and it has an influence out of proportion to its presence. From this I try to get to "big hippo on campus," but it's a leap I can't quite make, which brings to mind the Fantasia hippo ballerinas.

C) It's now going to be days and days of thinking about a hippopotamus for me, but it will no longer be metaphorical.

[davidgoldfarb.livejournal.com]

Oh, fine, now you've made me lose The Game.

On the other hand, I've won The Game of Secrets.

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

CLearly, now I'm playing, too. On the other hand, I don't have to. On that first hand, the rules make clear that I don't get a choice.

Are you sure it's a game? Sounds like the third law of thermodynamics to me.

[wild-irises.livejournal.com]

I think it has to be a good thing to have time off from thinking about the hippopotamus.

I'm thinking about my friends whose daughter died two years ago; Matthew talks often about how for the first year or more he felt better when he was in active grief because he felt close to her, and he felt guilty when he was going on with life and not thinking about her. And that is slowly changing.

Good luck with the lead!!

[tomaqmar.livejournal.com]

"Hippopotamus" is actually one of my favorite R.E.M. albums.