The Random Comic Strip

The Random Comic Strip

Words to live by...

"How beautiful it is to do nothing, and to rest afterward."

[Spanish Proverb]

Ius luxuriae publice datum est

(The right to looseness has been officially given)

"Everyone carries a part of society on his shoulders," wrote Ludwig von Mises, "no one is relieved of his share of responsibility by others. And no one can find a safe way for himself if society is sweeping towards destruction. Therefore everyone, in his own interest, must thrust himself vigorously into the intellectual battle."

Apparently, the crossword puzzle that disappeared from the blog, came back.


Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Teetering on the brink


As none of you know, I have a bad back. It began one summer night when I was 16 and, being somewhat tipsy, attempted to perform a kind of high wire act across the backs of the row of spectator seats at our local bowling alley. Not being especially well-balanced, and drunk, I mis-stepped and fell... landing on my coccyx. X-rays and examinations were not performed until after school started and I found myself unable to sit up the morning after having done some sit-ups in Phys Ed.

Although I was warned by the doctor that I might suffer future pain if I did not wear the girdle he prescribed daily until he told me otherwise and I that I would doom myself to needing a cane by the time I was 30, I wore the corset for a total of two weeks before tossing it on the floor of my closet where it was quickly buried under other things I no longer wore or cared about. Basically, it forced me to sit up straight and I figured I could do that on my own.

It was manageable enough that I made it through boot camp (we did no sit-ups during basic... oddly) and my Navy days without a problem.

I still cannot do sit-ups without suffering an incredibly sore back. And there are times when I stress out support muscles and suffer for several days with excruciating pain. It feels like my upper body is sitting on a tiny ball bearing at a point just below my hip line. Picture two pyramids with the top one upside down, balanced on a ball bearing set on the tip of the lower one. This is the mental image I have of what goes on in my spine.

The agony is such that I must be careful as I walk, stepping off a curb (or down a stair step) feels as if my vertebrae are being smashed together. To avoid this condition, I cannot wear shoes with hard plastic heels, I cannot stand for longer than 15 minutes (this has shrunk from 1 hour in my late teens and early 20's) in one place.

I tell you all this not because I am going through this agony at the moment. But because it is also my view of the economy in general over the last 20 years. It has teetered precariously , threatening to tip over and fall into a permanent depression. This also describes my life. A balancing act between comfort and pain.

All of this came to mind because I am in the beginning stages of a lawsuit against a CPA who denied my mother a stipend she was entitled to under a trust left by her former employer. And my lawyer died of a heart attack two nights ago.

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