Word of the day: Fantastical (from Meriam-Webster online dictionary)
1. a : based on fantasy : not real
b : conceived or seemingly conceived by unrestrained fancy
c : so extreme as to challenge belief : unbelievable: exceedingly large or great
2. Marked by extravagent fantasy or extreme indivduality: eccentric
3. Fantastic: Excellent, superlative
My wife and I are part of a book club. We joined/founded with a couple of people I know from work about 18 months ago as a way to meet new people, read books we would not normally choose for ourselves and stay connected with friends. Now, on to the title of the post and the reason by providing the definition to you wonderful people out there. Fantastical was the word used most often to describe last month's book club book.
My wife chose 'Luka and the Fire of Life' by Salman Rushdie. 
This book is about a young boy who travels to the World of Magic in order to save his father. It is a grand adventure and truly is a fantasy book (little known fact, but the majority of Rushdie's writing is on the fantasy side of things). It seems that most of the book group either did not read the book, or did not enjoy the book. Seeing as this is a group comprised of several engineers this is not a total surprise. I myself, an engineer, really enjoyed the book, but I have a love of fantasy/sci-fi books probably based on years of video game playing. Of course there were a couple of people that read the book that are not engineers and they seemed to enjoy the book. However both sides used the term 'fantastical' to describe it.
I felt that fantastic(al) is an apt word for so many things that happen in our life. It is fantasctic that I have friends and family that support me in all efforts I embark on. It is fantastic that I live somewhere that I can run for the joy it provides and not as a necessity. It is fantastic that we have top of the line medical care. It is fantastic that we can choose what we want to do and how we respond to events in our lives. Life itself is fantastic. I could go on about how I lucky I am to live with all the niceties that we as Americans sometimes take for granted, sometimes you just need to step back and think about all you have instead of what you don't.
I realize, especially after discussing my anxiety with my wife, that the race is my rational/physical way of expressing the feelings I am having about several things going on in my life right now. The most important of those would be the impending birth of my second child. My wife is due mid-July, and the pregnancy hasn't been easy, it hasn't been horrible, but complications at the end with the first one have me worried as we approach the end of the second one. The doctors, of course, have been helpful in so many ways trying to catch warning signs early so that we don't have unexpected problems again. I know that having a new baby at home will change those worries, but at least the unknowns of the pregnancy will be gone.
So in reality, I have the perfect storm of events, the Half in 10 days, then what I am told is more like days than weeks (Dr. predicting a July 4th baby), for the arrival. It is a bit overwhelming. Normally, I would only worry about what I can control (aka the Run) but in this case my emotions are getting the better of me.
To the my readers: You guys are, in a word, Fantastic! I know my training will get me through the race. I also know that my real concern is the coming challenges of an expanding family (there is no training for raising a child). So thank you all for you words of encouragment, and I can't wait to update you all with the race report and the baby report.
No comments:
Post a Comment