regenerating

I’m sure it will shock and amaze you when I say I have found the couch each day this week at 5pm to watch Doctor Who on BBC America. Yesterday was a repeat of the first David Tennant episode - the Christmas special where Rose & Co battle the Sycorax while waiting for the 10th doctor to finish regenerating. Kind of appropriate that it happened to play this week when I’ve thought of that episode’s premise of needing time (and a good cuppa tea) to feel comfortable in a new skin. 

Now, I’m not going to suggest that moving from greater Boston back to Worcester is in any way akin to absorbing the energy of the Tardis after the (temporary) annihilation of the Daleks… but I definitely appreciate that inclination to just lie in bed in one’s pajamas while the energy reassembles itself before going out and fighting whatever battle the universe decides requires my attention. 

I like the plot device of regeneration. It lets the character keep his history but change… person. It is like a refresh button on the series – a chance to infuse the story with a burst of new energy and not grow stale with repetition.

I shifted locations to stop that feeling of staleness. The plots of my life were starting to feel tired and unoriginal. So I packed up my life, discarded the unnecessary, stored away certain minutiae for later, and went back to a place I left nearly a decade ago… and yet as much as it is a return, it is a new place altogether. And the whole experience of the last month and the idea of things before me exhaust my mind and spirit. So I took this week to rest.

So maybe these few paragraphs are a loquacious means of justifying my idleness of the past few days. Rationalizing the lazy Leo manifesting herself in the heat of a few July afternoons. Or maybe it’s my attempt to articulate my quiet and low key reprogramming.

Maybe… or maybe I seek out the allegory of my favorite television show to illustrate the path on which I have set my steps. Because while it was a pretty quiet and low key debut for David Tennant, it ended with a fabulous sword fight and determination that defined his character… a start to a great run and series of adventures. But without that proper rest, well… who’s to say that the Sycorax wouldn’t have ended time and relative dimension in space altogether?

I have two more days before I have to return to start crafting my new reality. I like this down time to reflect a wee bit through contemplating the mindless hours of telly I consume but also to disengage the hold of the old. Maybe this quiet will make me a sword fighting victor… a wiser, more contemplative fighter. Who knows?

But, um, for now, I think I’ll turn on some Netflix and verify my status as a Whovian nerd.