Words

I've always been an avid reader. My mother started the tradition with Jack and I at a very young age. In our minds, it allowed us to steal an extra 30-minutes before lights out. In my mom's wisdom, she knew that reading every night would help us develop a life-long love of books.

Lately, I've been picking up old, out-of-print books. It's almost a guarantee that I will have an interesting read. I am simply trying to get my fill of as many good books sans the modern twist of violence, gore, sex and graphic language as I can. In truth, I can barely endure the harsh reality real-life events in the world without reading about them too. So, I choose to choose carefully.

One recent book, Eagle In The Sky by F. vanWyck Mason (copyright 1948) is a novel about archaic medicine in the Medical Department of the Continental Army of the United States in the 1780s. It is fascinating and almost frightening at the same time. Back then you might be suffering from Canine Madness, Flux of Humor, Green Sickness or Screws. At that time your physician would probably be called a Chirurgeon, Sawbones or Pull-Guts. And sentences like, "Crimanently! The prodigality of that trencherman in his puruke." really makes me chuckle. Can you believe the crazy words they used? Yes, language has come a long way - perhaps not the right way but certainly a long way. It makes me wonder if in 100 years people will laugh out loud at our words - Like you know, Crunk, Sudoku, Supersize, Smackdown and Unibrow.