The knock ritual

I have a friend, whose name I will not name of course, who has ocds. Brilliant tocs since he counts everything and these counts must always end on thirteen.

Why thirteen, I don't really know anymore, but I know for example that at night, when he drinks from his bottle of water, he counts his sips, and that if by misfortune the last sip is the twelfth, he has to go back fill his bottle of water at the tap to finish drinking his last sip and reach his number thirteen.

At this level, everyone will agree, this is called OCD Obsessive Behavioral Disorder . Not funny you will tell me and you will be right.

But what then of mirror hours? And of those who make wishes every time the clock displays two identical numbers? What about coffee after lunch? Kissing his children before sleeping? From this happiness of licking the always salty hot pebbles...

If you look closely, life is punctuated with rituals, gentle attentions that should be addressed, trained to straighten up. You obviously have yours; verify again, list always; and take care, at the end of summer, to pick up a pebble or to slip a little sand into your pocket that you can scrape off once the grayness returns.