Just before you burp, there’s this weird hiccup-inhale thing that happens. Hoop. Seems like the body’s way of preparing you for the little airburst that’s about to be released into the stratosphere. It’s a weird place, the pre-belch. It causes you to stop what you’re doing and wait. You realize you’re now at the mercy of this thing, and you’re better off to keep still and let it happen than to fight it. Hey, look at me, invincible guy, completely owned by involuntary bodily functions.
I think that’s hilarious.
I wondered recently how much time I spend trying to fight things in life. How often I think I can out-think or outflank life’s surprises. Usually I’m thinking of large events, like marriage and death, but I never stopped to realize that I can’t even stop a burp once it decides to make its way into the world. Sneezes, too.
It’s not a bad little place, when you think about it. Another way that we’re reminded of ease with which we can be buffeted. Not just by storms, diseases, unkind words, or little tragedies, but even by pockets of gas that we ourselves have created.
So that’s my thought for today. Next time you feel a burp coming on, feel the ride. Get used to being happily helpless. There’s a strength there we forget we have.
December 1st, 2009 at 2:11 pm
Only you, Charlie, could write an entire post on a pre-burp experience and make it hilarious. You are too funny.
Susan
Over at “RaisinToast“
December 1st, 2009 at 4:50 pm
My mother has two involuntary bodily functions for which we give her no end of grief:
- A hiccup that sounds like this: “Buh- WAAAAAAAAPPPPPPP”. Yes, it should be inferred that this is very loud and exacerbated by the fact that it’s an incoming gasp of air.
- Her response to stressful situations is to laugh uncontrollably. Knowing it’s an inappropriate time to laugh makes it worse. For example, when my aunt fell in the kitchen over Thanksgiving, my mother immediately burst into laughter. Fortunately, my aunt is also plagued by this apparent hereditary anomaly and laughed right along with her once she stopped crying.