Back in the 1970s one member of the offensive line of the Washington Redskins lost 14 lbs in a single game. But he weighed 300 pounds. That offensive line was known as the Hogs.
I've been too proud to accept help also. But I'm 25% as bad as you were.
Geez I thought I had it bad when I played in a beach volleyball tournament and drank a whole gallon of water and didn't go to the bathroom. (I did blister the hell out of my feet though.)
The other parts will have worse stuff, but the most omnipresent terrible aspect was just the heat. It was doing crappy stuff while being extremely hot.
But maybe it’s an important exercise for all of us (especially those of us who’ve not had therapy): find a picture of our younger self, perhaps at a difficult or confusing point in our life, and write this person a letter. As if from a wise elder. I guess the assumption is that we are all becoming older wiser elders! So many of my friends and family need to read this. They’d see themselves.
I'd never heard of a "wordcel" either until just now, and I wasn't sure whether there was perhaps some double meaning to "shape rotator" that I didn't get.
"He understands work, he understands tasks, but he doesn’t understand people almost at all. Work is much easier than people. There are ruts in his mind so deep that he can’t even see the walls."
This rings true to me, although (like you) I was recording my impressions and assessments of people throughout my life, and this wealth of intuitive knowledge enabled me to grow in empathy and kindness as I grew in self-understanding. What a privilege it is to have lived long enough and worked on myself enough to see over the ruts of my mind and into the beautiful spaciousness that is our world.
Thank you for your incisive and resonant essays. Rock on.
Jeez - I hope you don't have lasting trauma to your nose!
As an older & wiser elder, I will chip in & say that it's a continual process (unless one is becoming stupider!). Insight, humor, humility, perspective hopefully just keep snowballing...
I find reading the stories of other's soul education heartening 💙
Back in the 1970s one member of the offensive line of the Washington Redskins lost 14 lbs in a single game. But he weighed 300 pounds. That offensive line was known as the Hogs.
I've been too proud to accept help also. But I'm 25% as bad as you were.
I was about 280 at the time. The thing that made it extra bad is that I had that weight loss while still drinking 5 gallons of water everyday.
Ouch.
I knew I'd love it!
The next parts are “better.” And by better, I mean more horrific.
Geez I thought I had it bad when I played in a beach volleyball tournament and drank a whole gallon of water and didn't go to the bathroom. (I did blister the hell out of my feet though.)
The other parts will have worse stuff, but the most omnipresent terrible aspect was just the heat. It was doing crappy stuff while being extremely hot.
Yeah apparently! Didn't even know the human body was capable of things like that!
Ah our younger selves…
But maybe it’s an important exercise for all of us (especially those of us who’ve not had therapy): find a picture of our younger self, perhaps at a difficult or confusing point in our life, and write this person a letter. As if from a wise elder. I guess the assumption is that we are all becoming older wiser elders! So many of my friends and family need to read this. They’d see themselves.
I think about it sometimes and man, I don’t know what I could have said that would have been powerful enough.
Why throw away books? Why books, of all things??
They didn’t like me reading. It “looked bad for the crew.”
And your lunches? Eating was also bad for the crew? WTF.
We didn’t eat. My driller said it wasted time. He was paid an incentive for getting so many feet each shift.
😭
I'd never heard of a "wordcel" either until just now, and I wasn't sure whether there was perhaps some double meaning to "shape rotator" that I didn't get.
I saw them a year or so ago and now they’re everywhere.
"He understands work, he understands tasks, but he doesn’t understand people almost at all. Work is much easier than people. There are ruts in his mind so deep that he can’t even see the walls."
This rings true to me, although (like you) I was recording my impressions and assessments of people throughout my life, and this wealth of intuitive knowledge enabled me to grow in empathy and kindness as I grew in self-understanding. What a privilege it is to have lived long enough and worked on myself enough to see over the ruts of my mind and into the beautiful spaciousness that is our world.
Thank you for your incisive and resonant essays. Rock on.
Jeez - I hope you don't have lasting trauma to your nose!
As an older & wiser elder, I will chip in & say that it's a continual process (unless one is becoming stupider!). Insight, humor, humility, perspective hopefully just keep snowballing...
I find reading the stories of other's soul education heartening 💙