Age on the calendar is one thing. Age as you experience it is something else again. Many years ago, I fractured my right kneecap. Split it cleanly in half. I didn't learn about this until decades later when my knee swelled up to the size of a cantaloupe after I had done some work in the garden. The orthopedist I was referred to did an x-ray and said to me, "You do know, of course, that you fractured your kneecap?" And I said to him, "Not until just this moment." He went on to say that it was a clean break and had healed very nicely. You see, when it happened, back in the '70s, I was young and immortal — and I sure in hell didn't have health insurance. So, even though I had smashed my knee against a pile of overturned sidewalk and had to actually peel my pants out of my knee when I got home, I thought had just badly banged up my knee — which, of course, I had.
Anyway, now that I'm old, I having to pay for that little encounter with concrete. I spent a good part of last year having physical therapy to deal with knee-related problems (I was staring to have days when my usual three or four mile walk had to be followed by lying down and contemplating an hour of really noticeable pain. Oddly, it turns out that my knees aren't in such bad condition that am a candidate for knee replacement. I am, though, a candidate for Synvisc injections to replace the cartilage. But I discovered over the past couple of days something interesting. I found that if I used my walking stick, not as an affectation, but as an aid to walking, I could walk better, faster, and with very little discomfort. When I bought my favorite walking stick — an ask stick, like Stephen Daedalus's that I bought in Kinsale while on assignment to cover the 100th anniversary of Bloomsday — she said, "You know, some day you might just need one." Well, now I do.
As you illustrate the first, the two riddles of the Sphinx:
ReplyDelete1) Which creature walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs in the evening?
2) There are two sisters: one gives birth to the other and she, in turn, gives birth to the first. Who are the two sisters?
Well, I definitely thought of the first one.
ReplyDeleteNow don't let the Sphinx devour you on the second.
DeleteA flaneur, of course, reaches his acme when he uses a stick to jaywalk. Of course, in your case Frank, it's a necessity. Take care, and enjoy your walks!
ReplyDeleteKeep truckin'! (And that shows my age.)
ReplyDeleteWho are the sisters? (I'm the worst at riddles.)
ReplyDeleteI saw somebody limping down the street today, and instead of thinking: that's sad, I thought: that works.
The wisdom of age.
Night and day
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