Abnormality

Donna Frazzee, the girl who sat behind me in fifth grade, used the whisper "abnorm" to me when she wanted to bug me. She thought this was very funny and would double up in an all but silent exhale of a giggle at her own joke. (My first name in Norman, and I was named after my father, so called Erec to keep us distinct in the family.) Donna's secret joke forecast a trajectory of my time here on earth. I have been out-of-step, or a half-bubble-off-plumb, my whole life. I just can't seem to fit into the boxes people want to put me in. Anyway, it comes as no surprise that my body has taken up the moniker as well. My MRI for the hot, stabbing pain in my lower back, hip, and thigh has revealed "abnormalities," growths, in other words. You could say tumors, but there is still some further tests to run. None of this is anything to worry about, though; it's just the path life takes and another turn in the circuitous road I travel. I am relieved, actually, to have the beginnings of a diagnosis. Now I can see it down there, in the complicated tunnels of the spine, all those nerves, discs, and Gaudi-inspired bone structures -- a little something that reminds me this ain't no paved, easy, predictable, normal garden path. Carry on, y'all. And remember that your time is likely shorter than you think. Rejoice in this day, and try to breathe through the pain. XO.