I recall reading that depending on the cycle setting that a PCR test could show that a banana contracted Covid. So, I didn’t get one. So, I guess I’m guessing here. But, I’ve had a few colds in my life and what I got about 10 days ago was nothing like that. I’ve also had the flu three times as an adult and, again, what I got was absolutely nothing like that. And besides all that, I am told that the regyoulah flu has disappeared from the face of the Earth since Mr. Covid made his entrance. Amiright? For the record, I am un-vaxxed/un-boosted, and therefore according to some, un-protected and un-clean.

On Day 1 it started out as a mere sniffle and a scratchy throat. On Day 2 I started to feel feverish, very tired from the moment I woke up, and later in the day the coughing started. I never did lose my sense of smell or taste as many do. However, my appetite dwindled significantly … for the next 5 days I would eat only one small meal a day. The proverbial shit hit the fan that evening, and lasted two full days.

I woke up in a panic around 4AM choking and gagging. Apparently I had an enormous amount of phlegm in my lungs, and that was coupled with a strong case of heartburn. For several hours before going to bed I had been choking down stomach acids that had made its way all the way to my mouth … no idea what the hell that was all about. At any rate, it took a good long 10 minutes of gasping and choking until I could breath somewhat normal again. I wouldn’t get more than an hour’s sleep, if that, for the next two days.

The coughing!! It just would not stop for the next two days. I would cough for 2 or 3 minutes straight — which doesn’t seem like a long time — but it is! This was followed by a few precious minutes of peace, sometimes as long as 10 minutes, but usually the quiet time lasted five minutes or less before the next round of hack-a-lung started. It was friggen exhausting!

It was also scary as hell. All that coughing — or maybe it was the Covid itself, I’m not sure — constricted my throat. It got to the point where I was taking, or trying to take, huge gulps of air while simultaneously furiously coughing. It was exceedingly difficult to do and literally left me gasping for air. Eventually, I could breath somewhat normal again but I knew The Terrifying Thing was coming …. the next round of coughing, the next round of gasping for my very breath. This went on for hour after hour.

Then the chest pains started. Again, not sure if it was due strictly to the coughing, or something to do with Covid. First there was the “pressure” pain … not “stabbing” like what I read occurs during a heart attack, but “pressure” as if someone put my heart in vice-grips. Then my heart rate — beating so fast like I just finished a marathon. I honestly wondered if I was going to die, and wondered how long it would be until someone discovered I croaked. A week? A month? I am not exaggerating
any of this …. I physically just went through the worst 10 days of my life. (I’ve had worse days mentally.)

Anyway, I obviously survived. I’m still coughing but only occasionally and only briefly … although it sounds like have have a quart of sand in my lungs. I’ve identified about 11 different wheezing sounds my lungs can sing. I still have the sniffles. And that’s about it.

Even though it could have ended differently, I’m glad I toughed it out. Had I gone to the ER, and given my breathing issues,
I’m guessing I may have been put on a ventilator. What percentage of people die once they go on a ventilator? I think
it’s over half.

It was MY decision (my body, my choice) to rely on Belief (God + prayer + positive thinking), my natural immune system, and vitamin supplementation which pulled me through.

Regarding Belief I read of a documented case where a patient with advanced cancer was given a pill which the doctors said will cure him. The patient took the pill and over time the cancer went away … as in the cancer literally disappeared from all tests! But, guess what? The doctors gave him a sugar pill, a placebo. The patient eventually discovered he was given a placebo. The cancer returned, and he died within months. There are thousands of stories like this.

I believe. So, for the better part of the three terrible days I laid in bed keeping my body as still as possible, and quieting my mind also. Mind over matter. What exactly happens when you “decide” to move your pinky finger? Sure, it’s the muscles and tendons that perform the physical function. But, did the muscles and tendons get together over a beer and decide “hey, let’s go move that pinky!”. Nope. It’s ultimately the mind that’s responsible for moving Herr Pinky. Maybe that’s a bad example … sorry, I’m still recovering and it’s the best I got right now.

Anyway, back to my story … that’s what I did for the better part of 2+ days … talking to myself, commanding my mind to win the battle. “Don’t cough right now … wait another 5 seconds!”. “Don’t be afraid!”. “Relax, everything will get better!” “You can beat this. You WILL beat this!”. I would even give commands to my immune system. Really. “All right you T-cells, get to work!” “Hey macrophages, eat an extra helping of those damned
covid fuckers!”.  And, yes, I also kept my mind occupied with several favorite Bible verses.

As far as vitamin supplementation I took large doses of what I had on hand; Vitamin C and D, zinc, quercin, NAC. I also had a bottle of gingko and resveratrol so, what the heck, I took those also. I would have taken ivermectin, but didn’t have any. That’s my covid survival story and here I am, fit as a 69 year old fiddle can be.

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But, it’s not yet quite the end of the story. A person has a lot of time to think when they’re sick and immobile. I mean, what’s up with this Fetterman Fiasco?

Democrats suck. So do Republicans. I hate most of them in both parties. The only thing I will concede is that one of those parties is less pathetically shitty than the other, by a small margin. Neither can stop The 4th Turning Storm that is coming that will likely end America as we know it. All these politicians are nothing but pawns anyway. They answer to a Higher Power — a very small group of immensely rich and powerful entities (individual and corporate) who are also Evil Personified. So, I really don’t give a rat’s ass that the Red Wave didn’t materialize as planned. It would not have changed one bit this nation’s downward trajectory. Nevertheless, I was surprised, and shaken by the election of John Fetterman.

It is said that people always vote in THEIR best interests. That’s why the poor will vote for the party they believe will give them the most freebies, and the old will vote for the party they believe will keep Social Security funded forever, and so on down the line. Every voter is a Special Interest of one.

But, Fetterman can’t even speak a single coherent sentence. He was against fracking before he was for it. In other words, he has no principles or core beliefs whatsoever. He wants to basically empty out the jails because those murderous inmates are just like us. He denies inflation is even an issue. My God, this guy is a hundred miles to the left of Bernie Sanders. In fact, he is much closer to Communism than any American elected politician of any era.

Therefore, HOW can casting a vote for him possibly be in ANYONE’S best interests??? Yet, the people of PA chose him. I have read many explanations why this happened but, I don’t like any of them. Let me very briefly give you my opinion; one is a secular answer, and the other is religious in nature.

The secular answer in one word; TRIBALISM.

Americans have gotten to the point where even self-interests no longer matter. “I’ll hurt myself as long as it hurts YOU more!!”  The only thing that matters is either the letter “D” or “R” next to the name. If you’re a Democrat you won’t vote for the name next to the “R”, even if that name is Jesus Christ. If you’re a Democrat you will vote for the name next to the “D”, even if that name is Beelzebub. Republicans are no different. It’s MY TRIBE, come hell or high water. It’s US vs THEM; and that kind of national division almost always ends in lots of violence and bloodshed and the end of nations.

Here is the opening paragraph in an editorial this week titled “Are the unvaccinated still a danger to the rest of us?”

“For almost two years, covid-19 vaccine holdouts have been the object of earnest pleading and financial inducements, of social media shaming and truth campaigns. They’ve missed weddings, birthday celebrations and recitals, and even forfeited high-stakes athletic competitions. Until last month, they were barred from entering the United States and more than 100 other countries. Now the unvaccinated are suddenly back in the mix. They’re dining in restaurants, rocking out at music festivals and filling the stands at sporting venues. They mingle freely in places where they used to be shunned for fear they’d seed super-spreader events. It’s as if they are no longer hazardous to the rest of us.”

You can almost feel the editor’s sorrow that the unvaccinated haven’t all dropped dead. And that’s how in is in America now; Us vs. Them, and not only with Corona, but just about everything. The president tells me I am a danger to democracy if I don’t vote Democrat. Others say I am racist no matter what I say or do, that it is part of my white DNA. If I object to a transgender twerking in front of my first grade child then I am a homophobe who deserves to lose his job. There is no end to the number of ways the seeds of division can be divvied up. We would be doomed as a nation even if there were no 4th Turning.

The religious answer; we have forsaken our Christian roots. That is according to a parable taught by Jesus in Mt. 12:43-45

“When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. Then he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation.”

At first glance this appears to be a parable about a possessed and delivered man who becomes repossessed. Could be true. But, the key is when Jesus says “So shall it also be with this wicked generation.” Thus, it is more than just a spiritual principle about a possessed individual but, rather, it is a prophetic warning about a possessed culture and civilization.

When Jesus taught this parable the known world (mostly the Roman Empire) was a civilization possessed by a pantheon of gods and spirits (small ‘g’ and ‘s’). But, into that house came The Word, the True Spirit, and set them free, a house cleansed and set in order. What happened to the gods and spirits that used to dwell there? They now dwelled in the shadows roaming the dry and desolate places. Eventually, the spirits find their way back into the house. How is that possible? Because it was “EMPTY“. For some reason not stated, the Spirit no longer resided therein. A clean and pretty house on the outside, but empty on the inside, will be repossessed. I am reminded of Jesus’s condemnation of the Pharisees whose house was clean on the outside but dead and filthy inside.

How does this verse relate to America? I believe it means that as a post-Christian nation we will end up in a far darker place than the pre-Christian era. Jesus said that a nation that once knew God, a nation delivered from gods and spirits, that should they turn away from the True Spirit that things would be seven times worse for them than it ever was. That’s why we got John Fetterman!  🙂 

Isn’t that what is happening to America before your eyes? We have all but legislated God out of existence in public life over the last 50 years. Christ is the only religious leader who can be spit upon, mocked, and even pictured in a vial of piss, and all done without impunity. So let’s not be surprised that it is the modern world, not the pagan one, which has produced the most death, mayhem, destruction, suffering, and evil on such a scale even the demons sit back in wonder. Seven times worse? I’m betting that before it’s all over it will be seventy times seven worse for America.  

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Other things I thought about. What do I want my role to be here on TBP? Do I have anything left to say that I haven’t said a hundred times before? Is it time to close this chapter of my life? Hey, I had a lot of time on my hands!

I have Everything Fatigue! Trump fatigue, Pelosi fatigue, Democrat fatigue, Republican fatigue, Doom fatigue, POWM fatigue, I am even fatigued of fatigue! I guess what I’m saying is that I don’t give a rat’s ass about these things anymore. I don’t see myself commenting or submitting articles too much on these things in the future.  To be sure, I have felt this way before, and the feeling eventually went away.  But, it seems more real this time.

I will certainly continue commenting on the Russia-Ukie-USA war. That’s because the outcome may determine the existence of NATO and, therefore, America’s continued status as the World’s Unipolar Hegemon. Also,  it is of extreme interest to me to see firsthand the battle between a Christian nation (Russia) and a non-Christian nation (USA).

But, mostly I will return to my roots.  My roots are in things spiritual.  I pretty much learned English from Dick (and Jane) and from the Daily Messenger – a Catholic comic book depicting stories from the Gospels.  When I was in high school I’d climb out the bedroom window to go to Jehovah Witness meetings.  In the Air Force I joined a Jesus People Group known as The Way. Later I was baptized in the Mediterranean by Methodists. In my 40’s I took post graduate religion courses from a seminary.  Religion is in my bones. 

Besides, I got maybe a decade or a little more left to roam this earth.  What should I do?  Strive for a big fancy house,  get a brand new red sports car, play golf on weekends,  go fishing on my boat during the week,  drink wine with my much younger looking wife, never get sick, travel the world, a smile all day every day?? —- you know, like all those retirement commercials you see on TV?   Nah!!! Screw that!!

I want to spend my twilight years contemplating The Eternal One, what eternity might hold, whether or not I’ll make it, and maybe being nice to more people.  I’d probably be happy as a monk but, that ain’t gonna happen.

I might write about some of my more profound findings, if any.

Then again, I might not.  I’ve written about a dozen purely religious articles. It’s always a crap shoot. They usually get a lot of comments … mostly negative.  First, there are the atheists and agnostics. Other than saying “Bullshit!!“, they aren’t too bad to deal with.  It’s the believers who are a real challenge.  All the following comments have come from believers;  “Heretic!“, “You’re not rightly dividing …”,  “You don’t understand insert-anything-here“,  “Stop spreading lies!”,  and even “Why do yo hate God!?“.  They are a difficult group to please, and the effort required to put thoughts on paper not only goes unrewarded, but is punished.  I’m not sure I want to deal with that.  I’m not the shit-stirrer I used to be.  People change. I changed. I’m trying to be nicer … before I croak.

THE END

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Author: Stucky

I'm right, you're wrong. Deal with it. View all posts by Stucky