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Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Too fat to fly
OH Kevin Smith how I feel your pain. If you have yet to hear director/actor/all around awesome dude was kicked off a Southwest flight for being too... well... all around. I know how he feels. When I moved to Seattle a while ago, I also faced the anit-fatite discrimination policy of Southwest Airlines. I had just hugged my parents goodbye at the gate and had made it through security without a problem. The problem came when the desk clerk became alarmed by my extreme jollification. She approached me and asked me to approach the counter with her. She said that in order to fly on their airline I would have to purchase another ticket. Mind you, my move to Seattle was pretty much on a whim and only funded by my tax return. I only had about $300.00 left after purchasing my ticket. My parents had already left and I was so angry, shocked and of course embarrassed I purchased another seat. Mind you when I got on the plane, I fit in the seat without "spillover" as the woman had informed me I would have. She did assure me however, that if the flight were not full I would be refunded my ticket after I filled out some paperwork and sent it in. Now is it discrimination if they ask ahead of time? Had the stated on the website when I purchased the ticked that my morbidly obese stature would constitute the purchase of 2 seats I would have chosen another airline.
Why is it that fatties are the one group of people that it is still completely ok to discriminate against? Think about it. We are a culture that tries to be politically correct and accepting in every way yet not when it comes to fatties. We live in a culture where the demand to be over programmed and undernourished is embraced. McDonalds is the official food sponsor of the Olympics for fuck sake. We live in a culture where faster is better, so why would a fattie not want to fly. We certainly do not have time to drive everywhere. In addition, if we choose to drive it's crapshoot as to whether or not the seatbelt will even fit around us. Is this the car manufacturers’ way of saying "Hey Stay Puffed, if in an accident maybe your blubber will protect you, we sure as hell won’t!" Now don't get me wrong I know that obesity is a problem in our country. The bigger problem is the undernourishment of our nation as a whole. We live on a diet of corn, which as you all know is just filler and comes out as pristine as it went in. How is that good for you? If we spent the same amount of time and energy on teaching healthy eating and proper nutrition as we do making everyone EVERYONE feel bad for their bodies we would have a healthier culture. Since I have been home, I have been amazed at the amount of ads on television for medicine. How about an add that says, "Depressed, anxious, impotent, bladder control issues? Eat an apple, take a walk, talk with your family, talk with your friends, and talk through a blog." Few people make it through adolescents without being made fun of for something. So most people know how it feels to be on the receiving end of a cruel joke or comment. When I was in the process of having my gastric bypass surgery, the doctors were constantly amazed at how healthy I was. I was NOT a morbidly obese person eating quadruple stacker sandwiches with diet coke. I did not eat well and I know that but I was not completely glutinous and slovenly. Was I supposed to bleed corn oil and breathe cocoa puffs? The thing that kills me is that I am STILL too fat to fly southwestern. 160 lbs lost and I am still considered morbidly obese which puts me in the no fly zone. My fat is offensive but a crying child on a 22-hour flight is not? My fat is offensive but a flight attendant acting like she couldn’t understand the Chinese man next to me when he asked for "toh-mah-toh juicy" is not? My fat is offensive but you embarrassing me and making me enter the plane before all other passengers (including the "crippled" and "decrepit") is not? I think that Southwest should be ashamed, people who support airline discrimination policies should be ashamed and our country as a whole should be ashamed. A waist is a terrible thing to mind!
Why is it that fatties are the one group of people that it is still completely ok to discriminate against? Think about it. We are a culture that tries to be politically correct and accepting in every way yet not when it comes to fatties. We live in a culture where the demand to be over programmed and undernourished is embraced. McDonalds is the official food sponsor of the Olympics for fuck sake. We live in a culture where faster is better, so why would a fattie not want to fly. We certainly do not have time to drive everywhere. In addition, if we choose to drive it's crapshoot as to whether or not the seatbelt will even fit around us. Is this the car manufacturers’ way of saying "Hey Stay Puffed, if in an accident maybe your blubber will protect you, we sure as hell won’t!" Now don't get me wrong I know that obesity is a problem in our country. The bigger problem is the undernourishment of our nation as a whole. We live on a diet of corn, which as you all know is just filler and comes out as pristine as it went in. How is that good for you? If we spent the same amount of time and energy on teaching healthy eating and proper nutrition as we do making everyone EVERYONE feel bad for their bodies we would have a healthier culture. Since I have been home, I have been amazed at the amount of ads on television for medicine. How about an add that says, "Depressed, anxious, impotent, bladder control issues? Eat an apple, take a walk, talk with your family, talk with your friends, and talk through a blog." Few people make it through adolescents without being made fun of for something. So most people know how it feels to be on the receiving end of a cruel joke or comment. When I was in the process of having my gastric bypass surgery, the doctors were constantly amazed at how healthy I was. I was NOT a morbidly obese person eating quadruple stacker sandwiches with diet coke. I did not eat well and I know that but I was not completely glutinous and slovenly. Was I supposed to bleed corn oil and breathe cocoa puffs? The thing that kills me is that I am STILL too fat to fly southwestern. 160 lbs lost and I am still considered morbidly obese which puts me in the no fly zone. My fat is offensive but a crying child on a 22-hour flight is not? My fat is offensive but a flight attendant acting like she couldn’t understand the Chinese man next to me when he asked for "toh-mah-toh juicy" is not? My fat is offensive but you embarrassing me and making me enter the plane before all other passengers (including the "crippled" and "decrepit") is not? I think that Southwest should be ashamed, people who support airline discrimination policies should be ashamed and our country as a whole should be ashamed. A waist is a terrible thing to mind!
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Love Letters
Years ago before we had the use of the internet, telephone and other means of communication people would write love letters when they were separated from their beloved. They would use ink to permanently write the thoughts that they had to keep close while hundreds sometimes thousands of miles apart. I believe that the ease of which love can happen in present time has taken away from the sweetness that it is to hold someone's heart and treasure it. It is easy to send someone an e-mail or a text message that say "Love you babe" or "thinking about you" there however is an art to a real genuine love letter.
Everything about a love letter has meaning from the stationary upon which the words will be written to the color of ink which will fuse the ink to the dried wood pulp the way the letter itself will ultimately fuse the to and from of the letter itself. When one writes a love letter there is nothing to be taken lightly about that which is why love letters may have fallen by the wayside. There is a certain commitment behind a handwritten love letter. It is the free flow of one's heart through the hand that will reveal to the recipient the truth of love. That in love, in a relationship there is no backspace button, there is no spell check and most of the time you cannot save and return to love when you are ready to finish it. Whatever happens happens and we all have to decide if we can read the rest of the love story even though there will be mistakes. If we all got it right the first time, we would all still be with our first love. Some people have and it is because they have accepted that a love letter is written line by line and a love, a true love is written day by day.
A love letter is one of the rawest expressions of love that can exist. While a love letter is being written the only thing that the brain is controlling are the nerves that control the hand. If one's brain could control the words in a love letter love letters may not ever be written. Our brain words hard to be the protector of our body. The brain tells us not to touch a hot stove, some peppers are just too hot to eat and to sit in the shade when the sun is hot but it seems to let the heart be the temperature gauge on love. The heart lets lust make love too hot too quickly and it lets the unsaid, "known" sentiments of love keep it too cool for too long.
Love letters. Love Letters are the temperature gauge of the heart. Write it down. Write it all down. It does not have to be elaborate or ornate or covered in hearts and glitter. It can be something simple written on a napkin, with two different colors of ink. It can have spelling, grammar and punctuation mistakes. It does not matter if it is written in elegant handwriting or chicken scratch. A Love letter is the temperature gauge of the heart. In order to keep a relationship at the right temperature we owe it to ourselves to write love letters. Do not let Hallmark, or an anniversary date dictate when you express love. All you need is love…. That is what we all need.
Everything about a love letter has meaning from the stationary upon which the words will be written to the color of ink which will fuse the ink to the dried wood pulp the way the letter itself will ultimately fuse the to and from of the letter itself. When one writes a love letter there is nothing to be taken lightly about that which is why love letters may have fallen by the wayside. There is a certain commitment behind a handwritten love letter. It is the free flow of one's heart through the hand that will reveal to the recipient the truth of love. That in love, in a relationship there is no backspace button, there is no spell check and most of the time you cannot save and return to love when you are ready to finish it. Whatever happens happens and we all have to decide if we can read the rest of the love story even though there will be mistakes. If we all got it right the first time, we would all still be with our first love. Some people have and it is because they have accepted that a love letter is written line by line and a love, a true love is written day by day.
A love letter is one of the rawest expressions of love that can exist. While a love letter is being written the only thing that the brain is controlling are the nerves that control the hand. If one's brain could control the words in a love letter love letters may not ever be written. Our brain words hard to be the protector of our body. The brain tells us not to touch a hot stove, some peppers are just too hot to eat and to sit in the shade when the sun is hot but it seems to let the heart be the temperature gauge on love. The heart lets lust make love too hot too quickly and it lets the unsaid, "known" sentiments of love keep it too cool for too long.
Love letters. Love Letters are the temperature gauge of the heart. Write it down. Write it all down. It does not have to be elaborate or ornate or covered in hearts and glitter. It can be something simple written on a napkin, with two different colors of ink. It can have spelling, grammar and punctuation mistakes. It does not matter if it is written in elegant handwriting or chicken scratch. A Love letter is the temperature gauge of the heart. In order to keep a relationship at the right temperature we owe it to ourselves to write love letters. Do not let Hallmark, or an anniversary date dictate when you express love. All you need is love…. That is what we all need.
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