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

[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!!