OLD HUMPHREY USED THOUGHTS OF A TOOTHACHE TO ADDRESS MY CONCERNS

From Wikipedia: An alter ego (Latin for "other I") means alternative self, which is believed to be distinct from a person's normal or true original personality. Finding one's alter ego will require finding one's other self, one with different personality. A distinct meaning of alter ego is found in literary analysis used when referring to fictional literature and other narrative forms, describing a key character in a story who is perceived to be intentionally representative of the work's author (or creator), by virtue of oblique similarities, in terms of psychology, behavior, speech, or thoughts, often used to convey the author's own thoughts. The term is also sometimes, but less frequently, used to designate a hypothetical "twin" or "best friend" to a character in a story. Similarly, the term alter ego may be applied to the role or persona taken on by an actor or by other types of performers.

It's been a while since I communicated with my alter ego "Old Humphrey".

I've been having some thoughts about health issues lately and they have weighed heavily one me. Good Old Humphrey to the rescue once again. Speaking with his 18th and 19th century English turn of phrase, I never for the life of me thought that he would use his recall of "a tooth-ache" from his childhood in the late 1700s to elaborate on "thoughts" for my benefit today.

"Good and bad thoughts are the seeds of good and bad words and deeds: they multiply, also our joys and our sorrows," Humphrey began. "Every day has its shine and its shade; and the same remark may be made of all our griefs. Our pleasures are not exempt from inconvenience, nor are our pains unaccompanied with advantage. This ought to be borne in mind more constantly than it is." Up to that point I was on the same wave length as Humphrey.

"Old Humphrey"

But then he really grabbed my attention with a reminiscent about-turn that is so typical of the old 19th century scribe who has come to symbolize my other self.

"No! No! It is not all shadow when we have this tooth-ache.(?) Think of the luxurious feeling when the warm handkerchief, so wistfully regarded, as it is hung airing at the fire, comes at last, to be laid across your cheek and tied in a becoming bow under your ear. Think of the liberty you enjoy, the cessation from all employment, the exemption from all complaints but your own, and the kind attention you receive.

"No one requires from you the smallest service: while one stirs the fire to make the room warm,  another runs to fetch a pillow; a third toasts the bread for your gruel; and a fourth asks if anything can be done to make you better? 

"Say what you will of the tooth-ache, but these concomitants, these gentle alleviations, are dear to us all (well at least those of us old enough to have lived through those good old days). We soon find the difference in our position when we get well again; and we know this, and are not always in haste to proclaim our convalescence.

"No sooner is it known that our malady has subsided, than the handkerchief is withdrawn, and we must set to work again. No one assists us; no one speaks gently to us; and hardly anyone takes notice of us. It is true that our tooth-ache is gone; but it is equally true that with it have disappeared a hundred sources of comforts and complacency." 

As I attempted to wrap my mind around what he had just told me, Old Humph wrapped it all up in a neat package for me.

"Let us apply this to our afflictions generally, looking less at our bodily ailments, and more at the spiritual advantages that attend them.

"God's mercy can make even his judgments a blessing; and by wounding the body, He can heal the soul. 'Our light affliction, which is but for a moment,' may lay a weight of gloom on our minds; but yet it may, by the blessing of our heavenly Father, 'work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 2 Cor.5:17'."

"Thanks for that, old friend. Never thought of it that way, but I get it. You never fail to help me," I hastened to interject. "I think that I'll be alright now!"

"Just one more question though..."

A sudden sense of aloneness permeated the air.

Old Humphrey was gone...Maybe next time.

George Mogridge "Old Humphrey" (17 February 1787 – 2 November 1854), born in Ashted, Birmingham, England, was a prolific 19th century writer, poet and author of children's books and religious tracts. He is chiefly known by his pseudonym of 'Old Humphrey', under which name he published 46 works, but also used the pen-names 'Jeremy Jaunt', 'Ephraim Holding', 'Peter Parley' and 'Old Father Thames'. He wrote approximately 200 published works, many of which are still in publication today, and at the time of his death it was estimated that over 15 million copies of his writings were in circulation. I was first introduced to my now alter ego when I was about 10 years of age. He came to me through one of his books "Thoughts for the Thoughtful", handed down to me from my grandmother Harriet (Pyke) Perry. The book was a gift to her when she was also 10 years of age in 1870. My affinity to Old Humphrey has lasted a lifetime.