“My toilet seat is so low. I’m thinking about getting an extension. You know, so my knee won’t ache when I’m getting up.”
This is what I hear from the room next to me, as I’m laying face down on a squishy chair in my chiropractor’s office. The voice is husky, man-like, though obviously coming from a woman.
I hear my chiropractor ask the woman if she got new shoes as an electric current goes through my neck and causes a muscle spasm I can’t control.
“Yep,” she says, in an obviously disgruntled voice. “Velcro ones. I can’t bend over, you know, ’cause I’m so heavy. Once I lose a few pounds, I can get ones with laces.”
She then goes on and on to talk about her various health issues. About how she has a new folding cane, one that can fit in her purse so that if she has to go anywhere, she won’t slip and fall. She talks about the toilet seat again, and I hear my chiropractor, a petite woman in her forties, act interested.
God, I think, as another spasm takes hold of my body. Don’t let that be me.
_______________________
Like it or not, we were given one body to last us a lifetime. We can take care of this body, nurture it, keep it strong and healthy, or we can let it fall apart, so as the years go by we can do less and less with it.
It may be about looks now, but this body of your will be with you when you have children (if you don’t already). And it’ll still be there with you when you turn into a grandparent.
In fact, long past the time when you give a damn about what the opposite sex thinks of you, your body will still be yours.
