Book the appointment you've avoided

It starts small. A knee that talks on stairs. A mole you check in the mirror and then stop checking. Blood pressure you were told to watch and never did. You tell yourself you're being reasonable, waiting to see if it settles. Meanwhile the waiting is the decision.

You've got a private list. Nobody's seen it. The teeth you don't look at straight on. The cough that came back. The number on a lab report you skimmed and filed. Say one of them out loud to yourself right now, plain words, no softening. The thing you won't name is the thing running your calendar. Fear gets quiet when it has to use a real noun.

You're not too busy. You're scared of what they'll say, or you're scared of looking soft for asking, or some mix of both that you'd never say out loud. Fine. Be scared and dial anyway. Most of what men avoid turns out to be smaller than the dread, and the few times it's bigger, early is the whole ballgame. The man who goes in gets options. The man who waits gets a smaller menu.

Don't research it more. Don't wait for the new year or a slow week or the moment you feel ready, because that moment has already skipped you twice. Pick up the phone. Say the symptom. Take the appointment they offer even if the time annoys you. Then put it in the calendar like it's a job you're being paid for, because it is.

Call and book the medical appointment you've been putting off, before the day ends.

There's a kind of avoidance that pretends to be toughness. You carry the unknown around and call it strength. But a man who can't look at his own body straight has trouble looking at anything straight. Scripture puts it without flattery: "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price" (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Not yours to neglect. You're a steward, not an owner, and a steward checks the property. Going to the doctor isn't earning anything. You're already accounted for, already secured, which is exactly why you can walk in without needing the news to be good.