Photo Credit
Now at last I have come to see what life is,
Nothing is ever ended, everything only begun,
And the brave victories that seem so splendid
Are never really won.*
~ Sarah Teasdale ~
Shall we never be done fighting the body image fight? Or is it going to be forever popping up like a whack-a-mole for the rest of our lives? That's how it seems, if current events are any indication. Just take a look into the fun mirror of popular culture and medical media for a barrage of images and messages to make you feel bad about your appearance.
Thank goodness for counter messages such as these, that keep offering a healthier alternative:
posted by my niece Chantel
Sad but true -- every single one. But one weird thing about "no guy wants to have sex with a virgin" -- I was taught the exact opposite: "Guys only want to have sex with virgins." Catch 22: so you better never have sex or you won't be a virgin and no one will want to have sex with you. I guess for every hateful message, there's an equally hateful counter-message. So you can never win."
posted by my friend Jean
Speaking of weight, I was irritated at the endocrinologist’s office recently to hear the nurse advise me that if I had carried more weight over the years my bones would probably be stronger and denser now — while simultaneously giving me a personal fitness handout stating that I need to lose weight!
So the message is, okay, you may have a scrawny little compromised worthless skeleton, but you’re still too fat! What??? Which one is it? How small does a woman have to be around here for people to stop telling her that she is too big? Sometimes I think the right answer is "When she disappears. That's when she'll be small enough."
this optimistic energy & self-image
Letter to Editor
and
Tribute to Bette Midler
Almost got these two confused:
ReplyDelete1. Teasdale
"Nothing is ever ended, everything only begun"
and
2. Eliot:
"to make an end is to make a beginning"
1.
ReplyDelete*AT MIDNIGHT
Now at last I have
come to see what life is,
Nothing is ever ended,
everything only begun,
And the brave victories
that seem so splendid
Are never really won.
Even love that I built
my spirit's house for,
Comes like a brooding
and a baffled guest,
And music and men's praise
and even laughter
Are not so good as rest.
by Sara Teasdale (1884 - 1933)
from Flame and Shadow, 1920
2.
"For last year's words belong to last year's language
And next year's words await another voice . . .
What we call the beginning is often the end
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
The end is where we start from . . .
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time."
~T.S. Eliot
from "Little Gidding"(II, V)
From "Little Gidding" (Part V)
ReplyDeleteWhat we call the beginning is often the end
And to make and end is to make a beginning.
The end is where we start from. And every phrase
And sentence that is right (where every word is at home,
Taking its place to support the others,
The word neither diffident nor ostentatious,
An easy commerce of the old and the new,
The common word exact without vulgarity,
The formal word precise but not pedantic,
The complete consort dancing together)
Every phrase and every sentence is an end and a beginning,
Every poem an epitaph. And any action
Is a step to the block, to the fire, down the sea's throat
Or to an illegible stone: and that is where we start.
We die with the dying:
See, they depart, and we go with them.
We are born with the dead:
See, they return, and bring us with them. . . .
With the drawing of this Love and the voice of this
Calling
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time. . . .