JonasParker: February 2007 Archives

They say that the body and the spirit are connected. If this is true, then when is it reasonable to say that one is a reflection of the other? For example, four years ago I was at my heaviest I have ever been. 215 pounds. Granted, I do wear my weight fairly well, and people tell me that I have a large enough frame to pull it off. But I felt sluggish and fat all the time. I had no energy to speak of. Nothing was particularly interesting. At the same time in my life, I was very bitter about life and women. I hated a major part of every day. My job was killing me, and what a relief when it was over. I felt that women weren't worth much of an investment since they seemed to only want two things from me then: sex or someone to talk to/at, without giving me much else. (And I have plenty of examples to support this, as I am sure many of you have about men.) Luckily Rose has been able to teach me otherwise.

Now, once again my weight is creeping upwards. I briefly broke 210 the other day. I was recently in an emotional downward spiral, but I think that I already bottomed out and am on the rise again. During the dark time, my weight crept up little by little. I hope that it goes back down again. The last time it happened was 2004, where I hit a low of 194. I felt pretty damn good, I must say.

So I wonder how much I should link my physical body to my spiritual well-being. Right now, my physical body has been giving me problems for a couple of months now, and the emoitional/spitiual self has only just started making a comeback. Maybe one depends on the other.

Is it true for you? If so, how so?

I don't go for the traditional views of what is romantic all that much. I don't get very sentimental, but when I do, it's more intense than you might expect, especially for something that I am sure means very little to anyone else.

I LOVE this comic. I really think it's romantic and meaningful and I must struggle to get not get teary by thinking about it too much.

The body reminds us of our age, whenever we forget. I am struggling (feebly) against the slow but inexorable transformation into my 72-year-old father: formerly 5' 11½", 190 pounds, now 5' 10", 265 pounds. I need sleep that I never needed before. Aches and pains are starting to creep in. And my ass is enormous in my jeans. Okay, that last one I get from my mother.

Inspired by this post. What is your most distinguishing physical trait?

I have very large hands. They are more than eight inches long from my wrist to the tip of my middle finger. Therefore, I need large or extra large gloves. Draw no other conclusions from this.

I have pretty big feet. Size 13D. Big shoes. Again, no other conclusions.

My tongue is pretty long, but I have only managed to touch my nose with it once or twice. Draw whatever conclusions from that as you wish.

Even more astounding is my wing span, or distance from the tip of one middle finger to the other with arms outstretched. This length is 2 metres, or about 6 feet 7 inches. They say that it is supposed to be your height, roughly, which means that I have 3 and a half extra inches on each arm. It's my favourite party trick.

But my most distinguishing physical trait? It probably depends on where I am, but it's the colour of my skin. The fact that I am black. People don't draw conclusions about what I am like because I have big hands. I don't think that anyone stares at me, looks at me askance or obviously and deliberately looks away because my arms nearly touch my knees. I have never heard of anyone flirting with me solely because I have a long tongue (although that might actually make sense, if they could knew somehow that I had a long tongue without me telling them).

That dark skin surely marks me as something else as surely as a giraffe that's only two feet tall. I am not complaining, necessarily, it's just, you know, true. I wanted to illustrate that certain things are completely different when you are not what is considered "normal", or "like everyone else". I am generally only considered that way AFTER someone meets me. Most people are considered that way BEFORE. And you should never, EVER underestimate how important that is in life.