massage

this is some of what i went through yesterday: mini-knee analysis of a fellow aikido practicer in public with spectators. 

massage: therapeutic manipulation of the body.
palpation: using touch to get information from the body, includes diagnostic manipulation (like to find out how a joint is working by putting it through its motions)

first i did some meniscus stress tests - twisting the partially bent knee this way & that, sharp pain in specific spots = meniscus problem, meniscus part of the joint face.  no pain, so that was ok.  then i described the difference between ligaments, tendons, muscles, forgot to mention joint capsules.  then i poked here & there in a sketchy attempt to find some scar tissue (lumps mostly), bunched sore muscles, tender or twingy ligaments or tendons.  inconclusive little mini-exam hopefully gave some idea of how to think about trying to figure out what's wrong, maybe to start thinking about how to fix it.

the rant: everything gets filtered through culture, so here we are in a system that demands that we don't know how to use our bodies & allows only certain very limited physical contacts between um, cultural units, essentially in special situations.  massage as therapy could be a general habit as baboons groom each other but that does not happen.  automassage (selfmassage) could be a cherished trait handed down since pre-history but it is not.  why?  don't know.  you know: kindergarten class: all right children, today we are going to examine our hands.  that does not happen.  the wrist moves this way and this way but that way hurts (then they could go: so this is how you could move the rest of your body to make the wrist stop hurting when it is put in that position).

know what i mean?  why are we so persistently stupid?