Konnyaku

Here’s my New Year’s present for everyone. A way to ease those aches and pains; a cure for tendonitis, aching back, headache, toothache. any kind of ache. You don’t have to eat anything, though it does involve a food. It’s konnyaku, a kind of potato that is favored by the Japanese. I have eaten it. My sister-in-law prepared it once. It wasn’t too bad. But she showed us something better. Boil a block of konnyaku for five minutes, wrap it in a towel. Apply it to your sore spot. It’s hot. Really hot. So hot it can burn sensitive skin even through layers of towel and clothing. It stays hot for a long time, a moist, penetrating, soothing, comforting heat. I’m using it to burn away tendonitis I’ve had in both elbows for several months. It’s very difficult to avoid irritating an inflamed elbow. So, it’s difficult to heal what is typically called “tennis elbow.” They’ve got those straps you wrap around your forearm. They are helpful. There are some yoga positions that help (kneel and rotate your hand—right hand to the right, left hand to the left— until your fingers point between your knees and press your palms flat on the floor), but the konnyaku works best of all. You can buy it at Asian food stores. A block of it costs roughly a dollar. It comes in brown and white. Brown seems to work best. You can reuse the blocks of konnyaku several times. Today we helped brother Richard clear blow down from the trail that traverses the cliff face below his house. It was hard work on a steep slope with tenuous footing. We were, may I say it, Bush-like in our diligence  to brush removal. Now we are sore and having a konnyaku party. I suppose it is sad that we have reached that stage of life when the exhortation, “Let’s party!” involves heating up the konnyaku.