The Fine Print of Footwork: Experts vs. Specialists
Navigating the semantic minefield where the wrong choice doesn’t just cost money-it costs mobility.
The Semantic Minefield
My thumb is hovering over the ‘Search’ button for the 42nd time today, and the blue light of the smartphone is starting to feel like a interrogation lamp. I’m staring at a list of local results for foot pain, and the terminology is a dizzying blur of ‘expert,’ ‘specialist,’ ‘practitioner,’ and ‘clinician.’ Most people think they are looking for a fix, but what they are actually navigating is a semantic minefield where the wrong choice doesn’t just cost money-it costs mobility. I recently sat through a 102-page document of terms and conditions for a new medical insurance policy, reading every single line because I’m the kind of person who needs to know exactly where the liability lies when things go south.
It’s a habit I picked up from Hazel Z., a grief counselor I’ve known for 12 years who insists that most of our modern suffering comes from a failure to define terms before we commit to them.
Hazel told me once, over a cup of lukewarm tea, that people grieve the loss of their health twice: first when the pain starts, and again when they realize the ‘expert‘ they hired wasn’t actually a specialist.
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