Headache

I have a headache.  I have had a headache almost continuously for over a month now and I'm beginning to lose hope.  I've tried switching from contact lenses to glasses and from one strength of reading glasses to another, to say nothing of moving my computer screen both closer and further away, and to a different angle.  I've taken vitamins and blood pressure medicine; I've not taken vitamins and blood pressure medicine.  I've eaten carbs, sweets, salad, apples, grapes, pasta, grains, and cheese.  I've avoided dairy, raw vegetables, fruits, meat, and carbs.  I've hydrated, dehydrated, had caffeine, had no caffeine, had carbonated beverages, had no carbonated beverages, had vodka, had no vodka, had beer, had no beer.  I even had some Captain Morgan for the first time in case that might be the magic cure.  Tasty, but I digress.

Suddenly it occurs to me that cause and effect are not what they used to be.

I once learned a lesson about how limited human perspective is when it comes to cause and effect.  If there is a line of fifty people I can see from end to end and I shove the guy on one end and all the people fall over like dominoes, I can safely assume that the cause is me.  I can also assume that all fifty of those people are going to come after me and beat me up for being an ass. 

And the corollary is that if the line of fifty people winds around the hallway and into the room where I stand and I'm looking at only the last ten people in the line, and suddenly they all fall over like dominoes, I know that I don't know what caused the fall.  And I know it's definitely not my fault this time.  I'm just watching.

But the headache.  Is it sinuses?  Allergies?  An injury?  Stress?  A response to noise?  The arrival of the tenth anniversary of 9/11?  My youngest daughter's birthday?  A natural reaction to life?  A spiritual breakthrough?  A brain tumor?  TMJ?  Too much computer?  Too little breathing?  Urban life?  Paranoia?  Political ennui?  Hopelessness?  Not enough tennis to watch?  Anxiety about the NFL strike?  Inorganic matter in my drinking water?  Lack of time to read good books?  Separation from my favorite past-times?  Money concerns?  Career misery?  Fluorescent lighting?  Fear?  Exhaustion?  All of the above?  None of the above? 

Trying to figure out what causes stuff is what keeps me from sleeping.  Or is it?