Opinion

Were you the valetudinarian of your class?

Thursday, May 20, 2010

With the recent Cottey College and local high school graduations we have this ceremony in our minds. Often that causes us to think back to some of our own graduations.

At a recent Elderhostel when the participants were getting acquainted with each other, one woman told me that her father was the valetudinarian of his high school class. I smiled and said that was nice, thinking that she had mispronounced the word valedictorian. She did not say anything more, but she did laugh a little. That caused me to approach her later in the day to ask if I had heard her correctly about her father.

She told me that in a family gathering her father told her that he had been the valetudinarian of his class. She chided him by saying that he meant valedictorian but he insisted that was not the word. He told her to look it up. She had trouble finding the word because her father refused to spell it for her. But when she finally found it, her dictionary gave the definition of "runt of the litter or weak one." It became a family joke for them and she thought I would enjoy using the word.

She was right. I have used it several times, but before putting it in my column I thought I should look up the correct spelling in my dictionary. To my surprise my dictionary does not mention the word runt, but defines the word as "an invalid, sickly."

That followed through with the concept of weakness, but didn't have quite the same meaning as my friend's definition. However, I am still amused by the similarity of the two words and see many opportunities where I can seem to be impressing people but actually am sharing a joke.

It reminds me that important honors really mean very little as we become middle age plus. It's not that they are not important; it is because younger people are not really impressed about our achievements. The world is changing so quickly that what was hailed as something great sounds to our younger friends like the thrill of a caveman making fire.

The best way to impress them is to make them laugh. Usually they are laughing AT you instead of WITH you, but at least we can share a bit of humor.

The father in my story has given his daughter some gentle fun which helps her remember her father with a smile. It has had more value to her than if he had honestly been top of his class. His ability to laugh at himself has given his daughter a fond memory that she enjoys sharing in his honor. I don't even know her father's name, but I have a special place in my heart for the man.

I doubt if he had actually been the valedictorian that she would have even thought to mention it to me, but the joke will live on, in her, in me, and possibly in many others who have heard her story.

The word is too long to be used in a Scrabble game. I can't think of many ways to use it in general conversation, but it remains an important word in my memory bank. Who knows when I will have another opportunity to share it? My dictionary's definition continues by saying that a valetudinarian often imagines serious illnesses.

I have the sniffles today. You don't think I am getting pneumonia, do you? Maybe I should go see a doctor. What is the phone number of the clinic?