a guy came to bleed the radiators in my apartment yesterday. i don’t know what that means but i told the landlord i would be available around two. franklin, i think his name is. he checked the radiators. all was in order.
a few minutes later he knocked again, and said i want to show you how to adjust them, so you can raise and lower the heat. if you live somewhere with radiators you know you can turn the knob to mitigate the intensity.
thermal beings we are, running hot or running cold.
i run cold. someone said recently cold hands warm heart. who knew. i always thought it was the distance between my heart and my appendages. making all this quips about being cold hearted.
i digress.
franklin turned to me, after his demonstration, with his hands close to his heart. he said, ‘so you can feel how you want to feel.’
i was struck.
there’s so much unpredictable weather - emotional and atmospheric - and sometimes we can feel how we want to feel. we can adjust. and sometimes we can abate our own suffering.
we can dial, twist the knobs, shift.