Whose fault is it?

I was sick a good part of last week, my recent posts are undoubtedly fruits of lying in bed for four days with little to do all day. One of the thoughts I have now that I'm feeling better is this: what could I have done to avoid the illness? I'm certainly not saying it's all my fault that I got a nasty cold--these things happen. But am I taking care of myself to the best of my ability to stay healthy? Not only avoiding colds, but overall?

The answer, of course, is no, I'm not doing all I can. And I won't do all I can, but I might try to do better. Hey, nobody's perfect, but there's room for improvement here. I could sleep more and better, eat better, wash my hands more often, work less, stress less, and exercise more. I'm not playing blame the victim, but when a bad thing happens to me, I feel like I need to consider things and decide if it's worth it to make the changes needed to avoid a re-occurrence. In a way, this is related to a rape-prevention thing a friend forwarded to me recently. If you're raped, or get a cold, or any of a zillion bad things between those opposite ends of the "bad things" spectrum, it's truly not your fault and sometimes, they happen when you've taken no risk at all. But there are things you can do to reduce the overall risk those bad things will happen to you.

Naturally, nobody is willing to do everything they should to avoid the bad things in life--risks are a natural part of life--but I'm one of those people who thinks a lot about these tradeoffs. I'm willing to try and focus a little better on the things I mentioned to avoid colds, particularly sleep, stress, and fitness (I'm already pretty good about hand-washing, honest). Perversely, our efforts to reduce risk don't always pay off and sometimes, the efforts aren't necessary--you just never really know. So we all just need to find a balance and be satisfied with our honest efforts.

Maybe I should devote a little more time to what I should consider doing to prevent a burglary at my house?

CDs listened to today:

• Matias Aguayo: Are You Really Lost
• Joan Tower: Concerto for Orchestra
• Various Artists: Logical Progression, disk 1
• William Schuman: Symphony No. 9
• Hebert Vazquez: String Quartet No. 1
• Kai Winding, J.J. Johnson & Bennie Green: Trombone By Three
• Bill Frisell Quartet: (eponymous)
• William Schuman: Symphony No. 10 (Gerard Schwarz conducting)
• Remy Shand: The Way I Feel