there is a safe place that I used to know

Though I have never been bowled over by Norah Jones' vocal stylings, and I have lost interest in what Wyclef Jean is up to musically since The Carnival, it turns out they can string together a pretty song between them. It is as though Jones' usual bland, vanilla gets a much-needed infusion of soul, and Jean adjusts to a level of mellow that's actually just right for his Caribbean roots-leanings. Or I could have made that all up. Jean & Jones paired up to quickly put this song together for Katrina Hurricane Relief fundraising efforts. For some stupid reason, it's only available through MSN Music. But personally, I think it's worth it and certainly for a good cause.

I overwhelmed myself yesterday, and I have to admit that I rather liked it. Like when you stare at a painting too long, and all of a sudden you start seeing things that were never intended to be there. Or like a bad acid trip. So I'm told, of course. I am a good girl, V! Reading about latent viruses brought this latest brain melt on.

Let's set aside your garden variety flu, which tend to infect you, wreak havoc on your body for a short period of time, and then continue along their merry way. There is a whole subset of viruses that infect people, first acutely, during which you have clinical symptoms. Then, these viruses take a deeper dive, and plunge into a kind of dormant state in your body, called latency. They're just hanging out in your cells, not doing much, along for the ride. Some viruses do this forever; others, under the right conditions, re-activate and start messing with you again.

A good example of this is Varicella Zoster Virus. The first time this virus gets you, it's Chicken Pox. You have the itchy scratchies, and maybe a fever, but it's bearable. That's the acute stage of VZV infection. The thing is, when you've gotten over Chicken Pox, your body hasn't cleared the virus. It's still sitting around in your nerve cells, biding its time. In about 20% of people who have had Chicken Pox, the virus reactivates later in life, and causes Shingles. And Shingles= painful. Not good.

There are quite a number of viruses like this out there- Epstein-Barr, HSV, etc. And we all tend to get them as children. So, it just started me thinking that most people have a whole slew of viruses hanging around inside of them on any given day. And it's just a matter of time, just a matter of a confluence of the right factors, before one of these viruses decides it's time to kick it up a notch again. This happens more as you get older, since your immune system starts to suffer. I was thinking last night, wouldn't it be nice if there were some sort of reset button? It would be great if there were some sort of preventative therapy you could take, that would just wipe out any latent viruses that are sticking around in your system.

I am a huge fan of a clean slate, in nearly all things. But I know the complexities of life make clean slates an impossibility. There are things we carry with us from which we will never be free.