Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 April 1886 — Invalidism. [ARTICLE]

Invalidism.

There ere various ways in which people may be invalids asjthoro are various ways in which one may be anything else. Over some houses Bangs an atmosphere of dull oppression, a certain suggestion of doctors and of misplaced pillows that informs whoever enters, with a language that is unmistakable, that here is the abode of delicate health; while in other homes in which really dwells far mqre serious illness, there is oßly cheer and brightness, with no hint whatever of physical weakness and cobsequent disorganization. The fact is that there are some persons who tabe a melancholy and ghoulish pleasure in being invalids; who insist continually to themselves and to others upon their fragile condition, as if it were not only the most interesting of facts but were to be accounted to them as an especial merit. Equally there are those who fight against invalidism; who never intrude the fact that their health iq impaired and who spare as much as possible their friends from the contemplation of their physical .misfortunes. There are all grades between these two extremes, and often the professional invalid has fallen half unconsciously into that role through habitnal yielding to physical depression and weakness, but after all,people in delicate health may be pretty exactly divided into those who insist upon their illness and those who do not. s Obviously there is no need to ask which of tlie friends have the happier life. Whoever has been so unlucky as to dwell in an invalid-infested house need not be reminded of the uncomfortable nature of such possession. But it may be pointed out that the invalid, himself or herself, who makes invalidism the prominent thing in life is thereby deliberately choosing an existence of gloom and depression. Physical weakness is dreadful enough when fought against and resisted at every step, but it is a hundred fold worse when it is yielded to and, so to speak, encouraged. There are plenty of people who make invalidism a hobby; who afflict their friends with continual talk of symptoms, remedies, aches and general misery; and, save for the morbid delight they take in gloating over their woes, they willfully throw aside such comforts as life might have for them. The theme is an old one, and dida tic essays without number have preached the duty of resignation, cheerfulness, and all the rest of it, as a matter of severe and abstract duty. But taken simply on the plane of practical common sense, it is always wise to make the best of invalidism, as of everything else. For the sake both of self and friends it is manifestly at once shrewd and generous to ignore ill health as far as may be, and when shrewdness and generosity side together, it is hardly necessary to give other reasons for following a given course of action.