This week I went to the doctor for a check-up for the first time in several years.
"I'm a poor old man, my sight is sore, my ears are gnarled, my legs are old and bent," I told her. *
"Optometrist, audiologist,..." she said, and... "put your hand here," and placed my hand on top of my kneecap while I swung my leg. She didn't even bother to check it first herself.
"Feel that crackly stuff?" she said. "Arthritis!"
I guess I turned pale or something because she patted me and said, "You came by it honorably." In other words, I made it past fifty.
She wrote me a referral to PT for "crepitus" in my creaky knees.
Creptitus? I thought. Is that related to decrepit?
It is.
decrepit: from de (down) + crepitus, past participle of crepare "to crack, break" (see raven)
Raven?
raven: . . . from Old English hroc, "rook", from PIE root *ker- (2), imitative of harsh sounds (cognates: Latin crepare "to creak"...)
I felt pretty low for a couple days. But what're you gonna do?
Consider the ravens!
"...for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls?"
--Luke 12:24 (King James Bible)
I don't know, how much better am I than a fowl?
At any rate, at midlife it seems more fitting to consider the ravens than the lilies of the field.
P.S. Tests show my hearing is normal. I can hear my knees creak just fine.
__________________________
* from Monty Python's Life of Brian. But you knew that, right?
"I'm a poor old man, my sight is sore, my ears are gnarled, my legs are old and bent," I told her. *
"Optometrist, audiologist,..." she said, and... "put your hand here," and placed my hand on top of my kneecap while I swung my leg. She didn't even bother to check it first herself.
"Feel that crackly stuff?" she said. "Arthritis!"
I guess I turned pale or something because she patted me and said, "You came by it honorably." In other words, I made it past fifty.
Creptitus? I thought. Is that related to decrepit?
It is.
decrepit: from de (down) + crepitus, past participle of crepare "to crack, break" (see raven)
Raven?
raven: . . . from Old English hroc, "rook", from PIE root *ker- (2), imitative of harsh sounds (cognates: Latin crepare "to creak"...)
I felt pretty low for a couple days. But what're you gonna do?
Consider the ravens!
"...for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls?"
--Luke 12:24 (King James Bible)
I don't know, how much better am I than a fowl?
At any rate, at midlife it seems more fitting to consider the ravens than the lilies of the field.
P.S. Tests show my hearing is normal. I can hear my knees creak just fine.
__________________________
* from Monty Python's Life of Brian. But you knew that, right?
