I was just thinking about this: Are we defined by our personal choices of excess?
What I mean is, for example, that I have the ideal of living generally healthily as far as eating habits, exercise, drug and alcohol use, and other general abuse to my body. Because I like to take care of myself. But then there are, of course, pleasures that I allow myself. What I was thinking about is how people can be defined by their choices in this area, meaning what's their poison and in what circumstances they choose to employ it.
Jenny Lewis says, "I'm not my body or how I choose to destroy it." What does anyone else have to say about this? (I'm pretending that anyone other than Rob actually reads this, which they don't).
People who I think look like other people.
Posts
4 comments:
For the record, I read your blog everyday, and nary an hour goes by that I don't check and see if you've updated it (with the exception of the 11pm to 7am hours, during which I only check it twice).
In answer to your question, I do believe we are the sum total of our excesses. For instance, as a result of my longstanding addiction to morning donuts and afternoon gyros, I am now a fat-ss, and have to play the part for everyone I meet. I have to act jolly and pretend to like everyone, and I have to request extra butter and salt on all the food I'm eating because that's what's expected of me.
http://rickshawfeels@blogspot.com
When have you ever in your whole life been jolly? This entire comment is a sham...
Well, I think Will makes a great point. Our bodies (and how we choose to destroy them) make a great impact on how others see us, and in turn that shapes our identity to some extent whether we like it or not. It is a structure which we cannot deny...
But I love the courage and existentialism of Jenny's lyric... the decision to choose beyond the body, to have a self not defined by her body (nor the eventual and inevitable ravages of time and destruction).
So, in summation... as Grandpa Simpson once so eloquently said, "a little bit from column A, a little from column B".
Glad to know that someone out there gives my blog the avid, obsessive attention I feel it deserves...even if that person only leaves his sarcastic comments when spurred by passive-aggressive self-pitying comments on my part.
Post a Comment