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| Big toe of sculpture found in the Piazza del Popola, Rome, Italy |
I've never mentioned it before, mainly because I cringe at mentioning the super physically personal, but I have an arthritic big toe and a heel that tends toward plantar fascitis. Both ailments hit me when I was in my mid-forties, and now that I'm coasting toward the end of this decade (I'll be 48 in August!), gathering grey hairs, planting rue, well, I'll acknowledge it. It's downright embarrassing, I think, that one toe can dictate not only what type shoe I must wear (black clogs only) but also cause enough sharp pain that my eyes prick with tears. Sometimes, I catch myself nearly whimpering as I stare at the toe, trying to be only mindful of the pain and not judging of it (otherwise, my head would spin with the tangential reminders of my need to exercise more and lose weight, not to mention impending old age).
I get a very cool email every day from the website A.Word.A.Day (thanks to my friend, Jane, of the iPad beneficence). Along with the vocabulary tutorial, the site has A Thought for the Day at the bottom and this morning's was particularly appropriate for me as I try to ignore my big toe:
The least pain in our little finger gives us more concern and uneasiness than the destruction of millions of our fellow-beings.
--William Hazlitt, essayist (1778-1830)
