This essay, which I hope you will read, has its genesis in a remark made to me by a nursing aide who attends to my needs at night.  This lady, who was born in Ghana, said to me, “Would you like for me to cover you up?”  She could have said, “Would you like for me to cover you?”  She elected to say, “Would you like for me to cover you up?”  This set in motion several thoughts having to do with the Doctrine of Up.

I have been writing essays for 16 years.  It started in an effort to recover my powers of speech after a stroke.   The stroke did not bother my limbs but unfortunately it left me with what I have long called “a galloping case of aphasia.”  Aphasia is not a hurtful ailment.  Its main effect is that when I try to speak, the words come out wrong or there are no words at all.  To combat this, I write essays.
That is enough about my troubles with aphasia.  I wanted to give you an idea of why I write essays at all.  During my long bout with aphasia, Shirley Morganstein, the Director of Speech Therapy at the Kessler Rehabilitation Institute, suggested that I should write essays.  The first essay was scheduled for December 8.  That is a momentous day for the Carr family in that one daughter was adopted on that day and the other daughter was born on that day, December 8.  And finally, in 1943, German gunners downed the airplane in which I was a member of the crew.  So you see that December 8 is a significant day in my memory.
And as it turns out, Shirley Morganstein has become a great friend of my wife Judy and myself.
Well, so much for my troubles with aphasia.  My only thought here was to give you an idea of why I write essays at all.  In the 16 years that I have been writing essays, their number has grown to 754.  I had no idea that 754 subjects would ever come to mind.  But over the years, many subjects have come to mind and I have responded to them just as I am responding to the aide’s remark.
But in this long history of my essay writing, I have never given thought to the Doctrine of Up.  It simply has escaped my attention altogether.  Up consists of only two letters which play a disproportionate part in American speech patterns.  As soon as the caregiver offered to cover me or cover me up, my thoughts went to where else the word up appears.
Immediately I thought of three baseball terms.  One is at the start of the baseball game when the umpire orders the batter to “batter up.”  Anyone worth his salt as a pitcher will tell you that the “change up” is a major part of pitching.  Now we turn to some more baseball terms in that when the game slows down, the umpire orders the next prospective hitter to “batter up.”
Then there is the matter of “speaking up.”  When someone mumbles a reply to a question, I am inclined as are most people to tell him to “speak up.”  These are some basic thoughts that I had in mind.
Now we go to other thoughts having to do with the use of the term up.  One of them is “heads up.”  Heads are usually up but when someone wants to call attention to a significant item, he will use the term “heads up.”   It is also used to warn somebody of an upcoming issue or change.
Then we have the culmination of an affair which results in a “break up.”  It could be argued that when an affair comes to an end, the title should be a “break down.”   We are now wed to the term of “break up.”
I used to be a filling station attendant and in that capacity I was from time to time also called upon to deal with automobiles that had “seized up.”   This usually occurred when the driver ran out of antifreeze in his engine and it wound up seizing up.  I hope you noticed that I got two more ups in that one sentence.
Now we turn to a common phrase which is used more than anything else as a greeting.  It is “what’s up?”  In effect, the speaker is asking the recipient to tell him what is new but he uses the term “what’s up?”  The frequent use of this term has resulted in the contraction “sup.”
Now we introduce a bit of vulgarism.  It comes from the American Army.  When an airplane failed to show up at the appointed hour, or when a person in the Army failed in his duty, it was ordinarily called a “f… up.”  I hope that you understand that I am using “f” in respect for my elders, of which are few and far between.  Generally speaking, in the armed forces when I served during World War II, there were several instances of people who were called “f… ups.”
Now before I forget it, there is a term for people who drink a bit too much and are required to “throw up.”  “Throw ups” come before a hangover, but it should be noted that throwing up is a lot better than throwing down.  There is no such thing as throwing down if my memory is correct.
Now we turn to the suggestion offered by Miss Chicka who says that there were people who were “lit up” like a Christmas tree.  This is a commendable one.
Now what about the familiar term called “pick up.”  One is to pick up an item.  Another is to have a chance encounter with a member of the opposite sex and pick her up.
With the effect of Christian Mingle in our minds as we try to escape television advertising, there is the term “match up.”  One of the Christian Mingle ads contends that this lovely women met her husband at a “match up” sponsored by Christian Mingle and now they have a child and will live happily ever after.  Ah, but let us go on with our story of ups.
What about the term “toss up.”  It is used in a baseball game or it could be used in a political sense in that we don’t know which person will win.  A “toss up” is a formidable contender in the up series.  Baseball also has “pop ups.”
There is also an item called a “set up.”  It could be used for drinks which are served or it could be used in a political sense when one party sets up another.  A “set up” is a significant term in the up field.
When I decided that I had had enough of work at AT&T, I announced that my retirement would take place on July 4, 1984 because I was privately “fed up.”  However, I must say that since 1984, the pension checks from AT&T have arrived regularly but curiously they have never contained an upwards adjustment.
Now we come to a term that is “tied up.”  I will not get to this matter, for example, because I am “tied up” right now.
There is the term when people who are demanding attention from the viewer called “listen up.”  On Monday morning of this week, we received over all of our television and radio stations the notice of a tornado bearing down on this county where we live.  At that point I really intended to “listen up.”
Have you used the term of “lighten up?”  In this case, the speaker is telling the listener to “lighten up; it is not all that bad.”
In addition to the forgoing, there are other “ups” such as, “back up,” “check up,” “fess up,” and “show up.”  I suspect that this is not the end.
 
I suppose that I could have called a lot more of the up things to mind, but frankly I am getting a bit tired.  But before I go, I wanted to call your attention to the fact that writing essays is a lonely business.  I suppose that I ought to know after 16 years of writing essays.  It demands total concentration, particularly in my case, since notes are of no value to me since I can’t read them.  Blind people have to master the art of keeping several things in order in their heads.  But writing essays is a lonely business wherein interruptions are to be greatly avoided. 
However, in this case I made a great exception.  The exception had to do with a visit of my daughter and her husband and their sons who entered into this business about the “up” affair vigorously. One of the contributors was indeed the proprietor of the Ezra’s Essays website.  Finally, now that everyone else has been taken care of, there was my own modest contribution as well.  In this one case we have discussed, the up business had a lot of company and it was welcome company.  Ordinarily I do not suffer intrusions by guests or other people who wish to contribute to my essay writing.  I wanted to acknowledge the contributions of the Shepherd family to this essay.
Well, at this point I believe that we have covered several of the up possibilities that would occur in normal speech.  To tell you the truth, I am a bit tired of the up contributions to the American language.  And I think it is now time for me to shut up and close up this essay on the Doctrine of Up.
 
E. E. CARR
July 4, 2013
Essay 754
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Kevin’s commentary: If I say I really liked this one, does that make me biased? Probably. But still, so far as language essays go, this one was — while certainly not comprehensive — quite in-depth.  Brainstorming them with Pop was quite fun and my mother and brother were naturally rather good at it, as the English majors they are. I would recommend that he take additional essay ideas to the Shepherds in the future if he looks to extend the length of any of his notes.