Linda G. Hill is attending a Writers’ Festival this weekend, but Dan Antion, from No Facilities, is filling in for Linda because, as he pointed out, “the prompt must go on.”

So, for this week’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt, Dan has challenged us with using the words “ent,” “ten,” and “net.” As far as I can tell, there is no standalone word “ent” in the English language. The letters ent do occur in words such as dent, or bent, or sent, for example. And in multi-syllable words like temperament.

“Ent” also is part of the name of a medical specialty dealing with disorders of the intestinal tract, enterologist. And let us not forget about the otolaryngologists, doctors who specialize in the treatment and management of diseases and disorders of the ear, nose, and throat. And such doctors are informally referred to as ENT physicians.

And that reminds me of a personal story. After suffering from tinnitus (ringing in the ears) for about ten years, I finally decided to go see an ENT specialist. He examined me, sent me for all kinds of different tests, and finally called me in for a consultation. “So, doc, what’s the deal? Is my tinnitus treatable? Do you have a cure? Is there a pill or a shot that will shut down that infernal noise inside of my head?”

The ENT doctor looked at me and said, “The net of it, Mr. Fandango, is that, while we know what tinnitus is and can confirm that you have it, we really don’t know precisely what causes tinnitus and there is no known cure for it.”

“So what am I supposed to do, doc?” I asked.

He sighed, got a serious look on his face, and said, “Net net, learn to live with it.”

Oh, one more thing. If you are a fan of J. R. R. Tolkien, then you know that Ents are a race of beings from the Middle-earth who closely resemble trees.My personal favorite Ent is Treebeard, who, according to the wizard Gandalf, was “the oldest living thing that still walks beneath the sun upon this Middle-earth.”