Hey, how’s it going? I know some of you out there like my musings, I know others that probably think I’m insane. But I also know that I can’t quit being me.
Let me put this in perspective. I believe we shape our world. How we look, how everyone else sees us, is all based on our perceptions. And the labels that come with that perception shapes us.
Before age four, I was skinny as a rail. You could count my ribs. And then I had my tonsils removed. I can still hear the doctors voice as he said it. “Your son might put on weight after this surgery.” Before I heard those words, you would have looked at me and thought malnourished before obese. And then the weight began to pack on.
At age six, I was told I was fat. Everyone told me so. Students, teachers, other random people. Rather than fight the perspective I embraced it. In so doing my size changed in my perspective.
So, I grew. People came up with jokes to tease me about being fat, I came up with better ones. I used their weapons as a shield and in so doing I made lifestyle choices that made me fat. All my choices, all in how I perceived myself.
I’ve often wondered if the same thing happens to short people. They hear all their lives they’re going to be short, and poof! They’re short.
So, I’ve got a positive message of the day. The lie I tell myself whenever I see some of the disgusting fucked up shit we see in this world. I mean the shit that makes you want to claw your eyes out so you never need to see the sight again. I repeat the famous refrain of some of the “New Age ” people(ex. http://www.ralphsmart.com), a sound piece of advice. Fake it til you make it. One friend has even taken the thought so far as to call me slim. “If that’s how you see yourself, then I’ll try to see you that way, too.” I’ve lost 130 lbs since that day.
So, I say we follow the words of Martin Luther King and choose to fight hate with love. If the eyes are a window of the soul, but also a projector of reality, then what we project is put into the world. Remember that as you leave your house.
Smile at strangers, wave to the cars passing by. Tell that ugly person he/she is cute. Start caring about others again! The evil that exists among us only exists because we let it. The labels that limit us are just that, labels. And if the food industry has taught me on thing, it’s that labels lie. (Can you say raspberry or vanilla anyone? http://www.snopes.com/food/ingredient/castoreum.asp)
I’m not saying bad shit doesn’t happen, and I don’t invoke the lessons of my Catholic upbringing often, but I believe the Book of Job shows what I mean best.
God sent curses and killed his family, tortured Job like he were a George R R Martin character, but because of how Job perceived it, he was able to persevere.
You shape your world. You want a better one, you need to make it.