Well, it finally happened. Last Wednesday, April 15th, I had my new mattress delivered. That is exactly a month plus a day since I won the mattress. If you haven’t read about that in my previous blahg, WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO RECEIVE A FREE MATTRESS? then go ahead a check it out. I’ll wait.
Here’s a picture of me on the new mattress:
This is the Beautyrest Black Hotel Cornerstone Suite Tight Top Firm Queen Mattress. Here’s another picture of the mattress but without me on it:
Sorry, I don’t have a picture of me lying there without the mattress. That would be difficult.
The theme of this blahg is “This Is Fine.” I was just going to write a quick blahg about receiving the mattress and then move on. Yesterday, however, I was inspired by something else and thought it would be a great addition. I had been shopping at a thrift store over the weekend and I saw this Funko Pop in a display case:
I didn’t know anything about this Pop. I didn’t know what it meant by “This Is Fine.” What is fine? Here’s what the dog looks like out of the box:
What you can’t tell from that image or from the front of the box is the insert from inside the box. Here it is:
The room is on fire and the dog is just sitting there with his “This Is Fine” mug! How is that fine? Apparently, it’s from a 2014 webcomic by K C Green. From Wikipedia there’s this quote:
A 2013 Gunshow strip titled “On Fire” features an anthropomorphic dog (dubbed “Question Hound”) drinking tea in a room that is burning down. Despite its own body catching fire and beginning to melt, the dog remains perfectly calm throughout the six-panel strip, saying lines such as “That’s okay, things are going to be okay.” The first two panels of the strip, featuring the dog simply sitting in the blazing room saying “this is fine”, became a popular internet meme. The dog’s demeanor, described as “somewhere between bemused acceptance and outright denial” by Slate Magazine’s Jacob Brogan, proved popular with its full context removed. The sentence “this is fine” was described by The Verge’s Chris Plante as a “shorthand for when a situation becomes so terrible our brains refuse to grapple with its severity”.
Funny, that’s not how I viewed it at all. I didn’t buy the Pop on Sunday but that night it kept haunting me and so I had to go back and buy it.
Here’s my interpretation. I didn’t think “This Is Fine” meant that the dog was in denial as things burned down around him. Instead, I took it to mean, “I’ve Got This.” That’s when it began to describe me. Throughout all of the tough times like my Father dying in 2019 and being diagnosed with polymyalgia rheumatica, I kept thinking this is fine and I’ve got this. Sometimes things weren’t fine and I had to admit it but I didn’t let things burn down around me. I turned to others when I needed to and I got through it. Now, I really do have the “This Is Fine” mentality. I’m stronger and I’m handling things.
Recently, as of last week, I was diagnosed again with epididymitis. I’ve mentioned it before. Here’s the description:
It is most commonly caused by a bacterial infection but can also result from a virus. Symptoms typically include testicular swelling and pain on one side, which may start out as dull but can become more intense or sharp. In some cases, pain may also be felt in the abdomen, pelvis, or low back.
The testicular swelling and pain isn’t fun. I had to go my local hospital and be probed by the on-call Doctor. Like the times before, I was asked if I had any new sexual partners. I laughed and said I’ve been married for almost 39 years and I’ve finally broken in my wife so why would I want to screw that all up by cheating on her. The Doctor laughed and said he knew what I meant. 39 years with one woman and this is fine to me. Have I looked at other women? Have I thought about other women? Of course I have. I’ve just never acted on it. I look at the way things are and I say “this is fine.” There are no flames all around me.
That was a little more than I was going to post. It’s about perspective. I’m happy with the way things are, mostly. Here and now? This is fine. I was just going to close with those words but I heard a song on the radio today that that I though fit in nicely. It’s not usually my cup of tea, not even in a mug that says “this is fine” on it, but if you’ll listen through to the end, you’ll get the message. The song is “Anything But Me” by Owen Riegling. It starts off wishing to be anything but me but in the end it’s about accepting that I couldn’t see me being anything but me. Check it out: