....it out!

Near the end of my morning walk, I’m slowing down. Tired and tired but happy to be out. I’m on the last block of 30^th street when I spy a woman, splayed out on the sidewalk, no mask, no hat, pulling weeds. She’s talking VERY loudly on the phone. Even though I cross the street to maintain social distancing, I can’t help but overhear her.

            “……if you can’t physical therapy it out, then you only have two choices: One, you can become addicted to opioids; two, you can……

            I don’t hear the second option. But, I’m delighted by the use of the noun phrase, physical therapy, as a verb. I’ve never heard this before and wonder if it’s a common usage. Language changes every minute it seems, but this word form switch-a-roo is especially fun. I can’t think of any  others right now except for one I can’t stand: “My bad.” Ugh! It sounds like your whole entire being is BAD! Not that you’ve just made a mistake, which is what I think we used to say, right?  Granted, it’s an adjective gone to a noun, but same idea. Here’s one scenario:

“Honey, I went to the store; here’s the root beer you wanted.”

            “But it’s regular root beer, not diet!”

            “Oh, my bad!”

            When in the past, we’d say, “Oh, my mistake, sorry.”

            I’m learning Spanish right now. And I’ve very bad at it. But it’s not My Bad. I’m just bad at remembering all the vocabulary. Never mind the word forms! It gives me such an appreciation for my students and their struggles with word forms and verb forms. It’s hard! But this morning’s change of word form usage had nothing to do with language acquisition. It was just language change. And maybe this happens especially with conversation?  

            So no longer is it “I will try physical therapy instead of getting addicted to opioids” , but “I will physical therapy it out before I get addicted to opioids.” I like the use of the preposition 'out' too. This gives it an added authenticity for the new word form usage. And, so, we can say:

            “I will opioid it out since I can’t seem to physical therapy it out.”

            Or, what I would recommend, “I will swim it out so I don’t have to opioid it out!” And the beauty of the word swim is that it can be a noun, or a verb or anything that floats! This is the answer to the injured party on the other end of the phone. Swim it out! I’m sure that was the second option. And yeah, it might be close to physical therapy, but it’s a specialized physical therapy, right? Water therapy.

            So water therapy it out before anything!

            Of course, with COVID, to swim is a BIG challenge. As, I would imagine, is regular physical therapy. How can you social distance with your PT?  But things may be opening up. Or so I hear. Yet, will we all get sick from this opening up? There has been a definite, evidence-based surge resulting from this loosening of restrictions. I read an article in the SF Chron, Business section this last Sunday, (6/21) about how wineries in Napa and Sonoma are opening up. But….they are now being stricken with more cases of the Virus when before their infection rate was low.

            So, I wouldn’t recommend to wine taste it out! Though, frankly this might be the best therapy of all. If you can do it.

            Salud it out!