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March 30, 2009
On Being, Rather Than Having, a Body
Somewhere in grad school I came across the idea that when you're healthy, you have a body, but when you're sick, you ARE a body--you are reduced to and limited by the malfunctionings of your physical self. I haven't blogged much during the last two weeks because I have been busy being a body. I was going to provide details of the succession of dreadful ailments I've suffered from (a nasty cold, menstrual cramps, a really horrible allergic reaction, including hives and edema, to something I ate) but they're not interesting. Anyway, I feel better than I did, but still not good, and I have a backlog of duties to attend to, as all sorts of things besides blogging got neglected while I spent the better part of two weeks on my couch, napping fitfully or watching Buffy episodes I'd seen over and over and thus didn't have to think about. But I will try to post something substantial before the end of the week.
Posted by holly at March 30, 2009 8:59 AM
Gosh! Get well soon. All of that malarkey and cramps to boot. That doesn't just suck, it slurps. I hope Buffy took the edge off.
When my husband was in the hospital in a coma about six years ago, I had the same thoughts about being a body versus inhabiting a body. For a couple of weeks, he was just a lump of flesh to be weighed, prodded, and pumped full of fluids, medicine and nutrition -- practically devoid of all distinguishing personality. I made it my personal mission to make sure every doctor or nurse that touched him knew a little bit about the way he was when he was healthy. That seemed really important to me at the time.