After a long, tiring three-day illness, I’m getting my energy back up. I’m feeling a slight numb-tingle on my left big toe; perhaps that’s a blood-sugar effect from having eaten so little lately.

This recent slight setback helped me to think about the nature of illness, a topic I’ve been researching a lot about anyway. I don’t have any spectacularly new insights of my own in this regard, at least not yet. But I did learn this: As much as I was sick of being sick and tired of being tired, my “dis-ease” came, by the end of day 2, to be an annoying yet familiar presence; a source of identity and even perverse “comfort.”

But now that I’m spending a little more time at my computer and a lot less in the bathroom, I’m viewing my bug (or food poisoning, or whatever it was) as an unwelcome guest I should’ve never let inside. My optimal state is one of adequate if not perfect health. The energetic, clear-headed, robust me is the real me.

AND THEN THERE WERE FOUR: The Bush FTC finally agreed to let the record industry further consolidate, allowing Bertelsmann’s music group (formerly RCA Victor) and Sony’s music group (formerly Columbia) to merge into a joint-venture company. It came after Time Warner sold its record labels to Canada’s Bronfman family, which had briefly owned MCA/Universal; that company’s current owner, Vivendi, had to hold onto it after GE bought the other Universal assets but didn’t want records. The other remaining major-label firm, EMI, has tried unsuccessfully to merge into one of the others. These are not signs of a healthy industry.