Only the highest peaks in La Cañada stick up above the low-lying greyness that obliterates Pasadena in this photo (Photo – Reg Green)
You can’t guard against everything. That’s why, although I wear a mask when I’m outdoors, I can’t bring to it the kind of religious fervency I discern in many of the highwaymen I meet on trips to the supermarket or out on the trails.
By Reg Green
I had a useful lesson in all this today. Hiking in the mountains near La Cañada, I felt a painful sting on my ear. “Ouch, that hurts,” I said, knowing from long experience that if you share your troubles with someone else they are more manageable. As so often that someone was me.
As an only child I’ve talked to myself all my life, testing out opinions and phrases for upcoming articles and generally passing the time of day. This time, however, the pain didn’t subside. It got worse, redhot pains, just like the first, but more widespread. I hurried along knowing it would take half an hour to get to the car and drive home. That had always seemed a skip and a jump. In fact, I often told myself on that stretch, “Not long now.” Today it seemed an eternity. I felt myself swaying with the pain as the stings kept coming. Then, thank Heaven, I saw a hiker coming toward me. I stopped him and asked if he could see what the trouble was. “You’ve got a bug on your ear,” he told.me. I hoped he’d help but he stayed six feet away, his mask securely in place. I could see nothing good would come of this so I moved on and luckily met another hiker and told her what the problem was. She looked and said in a shocked voice. “It’s a wasp,”she said. “It’s trapped there” and without hesitation, putting my care above any question of bureaucratic protocol, came close and swept it away.
The psychological cure was instantaneous. I wasn’t going to have those piercing stings every second. Gradually the physical pain fell off too. I came home and put all the usual salves on it that I could find and I mean all: iodine, hydrogen peroxide, ointment, rubbing alcohol, soothing cream. In time, all was well, just soreness that has persisted all day. But I draw two lessons from this: first, you can’t be too careful, second, even being too careful isn’t enough. You can’t guard against everything. My conclusion: take sensible precautions but don’t consume yourself with fears of what might conceivably go wrong — and leave the rest to Mother Nature and Father Time. And, of course, keep your eyes open for a good fellow citizen. As I’ve found so many times all around the world, they’re most often there when needed.
PS I use that trail every few days so I’m wondering: does anyone know if wasps bear grudges?
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