April in Iowa
The path through central Iowa is famous for late blizzards, destructive spring winds, and miasmic germs. The trekking Mormons knew its reputation for deadly respiratory illness and tried to move all the faster toward the Missouri.
The modern strain of the bug is a virus, so there’s no help from antibiotics. No point in describing our own recent experience in disgusting detail, suffice it to say it was three weeks-plus in time, given over mostly to coughing and fighting off repeated assaults on the will to live.
Toward the end, the symptoms now reduced to dry throat and some weakness in the extremities, I put everything back into perspective by reading A Captain’s Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALS, and Dangerous Days at Sea, by container-ship captain Richard Phillips, with Stephen Talty. We had been led to the book by news accounts, and finally by hearing Phillips interviewed. He says frankly he couldn’t write a book and needed Talty to get it all down, but so much of him and his experience comes through on every page that it restores your faith in the “as told to” process. Phillips and his memory are remarkable. Full of dialogue, nothing in the book seems contrived in the slightest.
A tougher guy and a leveler head you would go far to find, and the book is a treat to read. In all the touchy-feely-weepy crap that’s put before us on television as examples of humans in ordeal mode, this one is the real thing.
It helps all of us to know that people like Phillips and his crew, his supportive family, and the SEALs are out there. Read the book and cure your cold.
