FEBRILE

January 9th, 2010

Febrile
\’fe-‘bril\ adj : marked or caused by fever : feverish

As a child, I remember suffering from fevers many times. My mom has often told me that strep throat and ear infections repeatedly afflicted me and those illnesses were more often than not accompanied by a fever. The last fever associated with a sickness was two years ago when I fell victim to the common flu; this too passed, although at the time, I didn’t think that it could get any worse. These occasions when I have fallen ill, too achy to move and so sick that even the thought of showering and brushing my teeth made me gag, I, ever so rightly characterized the meaning of fever as negative; as my mother so often put it, “a clear indication of an infection.”
However, having a febrile state of mind can definitely allude to something entirely different than an illness. As my fingers glide effortlessly across the keyboard, I am struck by an all too familiar ache; a feeling that I know all too well as the yearning to get my feelings on paper for all to read. As the thoughts that skate on the edges of my mental periphery come to life, the temporary fever subsides until it is yet again time to medicate the roaring in my ears as new ideas are born.