With my left hand out of commission from arthritis and neuropathy, it has painfully dawned on me that I can no longer say, “On the other hand…” Not that I have occasion to say that but I was reminded of the story of the prime minister of a country, in a military emergency, asking for a one-armed general. The one that briefed him regularly was in the habit of saying “on the other hand”, and the PM naturally was fed up.
My left arm was badly damaged in a fall many years ago and has never been fully functional since. I had managed with it all these years, but now, at 95-plus, I find the hand really is a handicap!
My right arm is deeply concerned over the state of its counterpart and reaches out to it with sympathy and affection. It pats its mate, presses it, gently massages it and moves it around to restore some life to it. These days I have my ‘sick’ hand oil-massaged by an attendant. I then wear a glove over it.
I only hope my right hand won’t feel neglected or discriminated against and start an agitation for equal treatment!
As if not to be left out of reckoning, my right foot, too, has started acting up. Its large toe has hunched up at the joint and huddled with its neighbour.
Age is not just a number as some would have us believe — unless of course the number represents the ailments that can, and do, come with age, not to mention the wrinkling, balding and graying. More to the point, even typing is being rendered difficult as the fingers are afflicted by arthritis.
That’s when one realises Robert Browning’s Grow old along with me!/The best is yet to be (Rabi Ben Ezra) needs to be taken with a pinch of salt unless “the best” means the very end of life, namely death! Ageing is damaging!
For years I have been reciting in my mind the 17th Century Nun’s Prayer: ‘Lord, Thou knowest better than I do that I am getting older .... Seal my lips on my aches and pains…’ I do keep my lips sealed on my aches and pains but let my fingers do the talking on my laptop’s keyboard. Mercifully, my lips haven’t cried ‘Foul!’, at least not yet! If and when they do I will have to use my lip-stick – my upright forefinger across my lips! To silence them, silently!
‘That’ll do for now,’ cry those very lips! ‘Stop, or else….’
pmwarrier9@gmail.com
