\n
Barbara Beckwith, age 87 <\/p>\n
Confined to my home after a hip operation, I dedicate myself to the physical therapist\u2019s assignment: 45 minutes (twice a day) of exercises, mostly seated.<\/p>\n
I eventually graduate to step-climbing exercises to prepare me for negotiating the stairs to my second-floor apartment. I don\u2019t have the necessary gym equipment (blocks of different heights) so I shuffle around on my cane, looking for what might add up to the desired elevation (six-and-a-half inches) on which I can do this new routine.<\/p>\n
Soon I\u2019m huffing and puffing atop Webster\u2019s Third International Dictionary (1966), the 3-volume tome that I abandoned long ago because of its arm-stressing weight and eye-stressing print, on top of which I\u2019ve added my equally heavy World Atlas (1974).<\/p>\n
Days later, when I advance to higher (eight-and-a-half-inch) step-ups to prepare for the basement (laundry room) stairs, I pile up more books: my 33-year-old Mayo Clinic Health Guide and my college yearbook (Class of \u201859)<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, my physical therapist insists that to keep my \u201ccore\u201d strong, I must stand at my computer. Fending off panic at this additional challenge, I prop up my laptop screen with a footstool plus my marked-up 600-page biographies of Richard Wright and Georgia O\u2019Keefe, which I\u2019m unlikely to re-read.<\/p>\n
My eye-to-screen angle is properly aligned, but I type on a separate keyboard, so that too needs propping up. I create a base with 8 Steps to a Pain-free Back (the one never-injured part of my body), and Oggi in Italia (I won\u2019t be traveling anytime soon). Atop those two, I reluctantly add my well-loved (its binding bolstered with duct-tape) New World Dictionary (1966).<\/p>\n
My make-do computer station now works. I should be content, but I\u2019m not: Yes, my equipment panic has subsided, yet I still feel uneasy. Something\u2019s not right.<\/p>\n
Dictionaries (like the ones I\u2019m stepping on) have been my life-long passion. As a teenager, I read them for pleasure, relishing each new word discovery. I\u2019d try them out on classmates and be miffed when they called me a show-off, since I thought everyone would share my love of words.<\/p>\n
In other words, Webster and Roget are my friends. I trust them.<\/p>\n
So I\u2019ve slipped the two out from under my laptop, found equally-sized replacements, and returned my two companions to their place of honor \u2013 a shelf within my stand-up reach.<\/p>\n
They deserve to be safe from the indignity of being used as infrastructure.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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