Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Summer archive, waiting and soundbites

From the summer archive by way of contrast with yesterdays dry leaves.


Our new National Health Service hospital lies like a whale at the edge of the town. The  demand for its services exceed availability. So it  can be a waiting game. At home this weekend H is holding on for an endoscopy, which will we hope will relieve the pain of gallstones or or something else. Today at last she is admitted and the procedure takes place (procedure is a word which one must get accustomed to). The wait may have been long, but the kindness and gentleness of the nurses makes up for a lot. It will I think be a few days before we have specific results from the investigation . Meanwhile it is a relief to have made some progress.

Soundbites can sometimes lead to superficiality.  I know this from personal experience. My weakness for aphorisms and the like is  a  sort of laziness which can lead to the avoidance of sound argument and exposition. But the snappy phrase hangs in the memory and colours ones thoughts. And can contain the essence of something unconsidered. Startling images in a grey world. "Know thyself! If I knew myself," says Goethe, "I would run away".

5 comments:

marja-leena said...

Thank you for the report on H. Please send her our good wishes for a happy outcome and quick return to good health.

Unknown said...

M-L Thank you. She doesn't like being featured here so I tend to do so obliquely. I do appreciate the interest and concern shown by you and others know her. We're keeping cheerful just at the moment. The plan is that she comes home tomorrow.

Stella said...

Thank you for the un-November photograph. You will be glad to have your wife home. We respect her wish for anonymity but nevertheless send good wishes.

Tom said...

Now why did you have to go and use that word, endoscopy? I can still feel it, the nurse holding onto my belly whilst the guy pushed......No! No more! :)

But as previous commenters have said, our best wishes to H.

Lucy said...

Glad to hear the wretched 'procedure' is done and out of the way, that the nurses were nice and that H should be out of the belly of the whale tomorrow.

I like the Goethe quote.