The Importance of (now and then) Being (slightly) Unwell

A protagonist who is seriously ill and dying is a shop worn cliche of commercial Hollywood and Bollywood movies. Being seriously ill makes this already beauteous person even more beautiful. Even more alluring. Even more wise. You get the picture.

Like most movie cliches this one is also preposterous and requires a willing suspension of disbelief to endure.
However like most cliches, this one too has a grain of truth.

While being seriously ill is a physical and mental train wreck with no redeeming qualities, I believe being just that little unwell to be guiltlessly bed-ridden for a day or two is beneficial to both the body and the soul.
I am not talking about malingering, sick leave pretensions or hypochondria. A genuine mild fever where the good doctor prescribes paracetamol and rest is great. A prescription of mild pain killers and of course, rest for a twisted ankle is also good. A stomach upset is a bit messy, not ideal but in a crunch will do.

The extra day or two of rest, besides ridding you of the mild illness, does your body a whale of good. It is like well-spent maintenance down time. But isn't a good vacation also greatly restful, some of you who are perhaps perennially healthy might ask. No my friend. Modern vacations and even weekends are stressful. Running around in strange places, engaging in strange activities. And the overeating which is usually the result of stress or boredom or both.

At home in bed with a mild illness, eating right, returning the solicitousness of your caregiver with solicitousness, the quiet all round as everyone is out working and the happy contemplation of all the stresses that your colleagues at the office are at the moment undergoing. This is rest at its supreme, replenishing best.

And the soul? How is a day or two in bed with a mild illness good for the soul, you may ask.                      
Consider this. When did you last contemplate your life at leisure? Evaluated where your life is going and
whether you want to go there? Certainly not on the vacation in Europe last summer when you were evaluating the cost of the Euro and where you need to be next day. Certainly not last weekend while spending Saturday and Sunday helping your wife shop for dinner party on Sunday evening and certainly not during that Sunday dinner party.

But in bed with a mild illness in the familiar surroundings of your home there are no distractions. It is almost as if your life is sitting on the bed next to you  having a nice, friendly conversation with you. If that is not good for the soul, tell me what is?

The next day when you get back to work and your colleagues enviously and somewhat suspiciously remark on how well you look, give them a wan smile just like that crinkly eyed hero in the terminal phase of cancer did in last year's super hit.