Big Mama Sez

"I think it’s nearly impossible to write something fictional without having it be about yourself in some way or another. My book could have been about any kind of addiction. But what I think makes food more compelling than other vices is that if you have a complicated relationship with it — and this could be on either end of the spectrum, you could eat too much or too little — you have to contend with it every single day, with every meal."--novelist Jami Attenberg in an interview with The New York Times

having  been a fattie

for much of my adult

life, i've learned to like

it, this whale-like blubber

that is my material self

no matter how unseemly

it is to the moral majority.

the layers of fat make for a soft

coat of armor that tells

the others indirectly, 

please, please,

do not approach me

to give a familiar

kiss on the cheek,

do not hug me.

here is my right hand

offered for firm

yet sincere handshakes.

besides, we're not

that close to exchange

kisses & hugs.

what evidence do we have

of shared intimacies or

even shared memories?

was there a trace of 

true camaraderie

in the first place?

so do me the favor

of standing back.

the elephants & the whales,

those gentle giants 

on earth,

in water,

now there's what i call

good company.

their examples

i try to emulate, not elude,

& those are

to cultivate a long memory

for hurts & distress,

to learn to swim away

at the first signal

of more dangerous

scarrings.

-Babeth Lolarga
Dec. 21, 2012
12.36 p.m.

Source of quotation: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/13/books/obesity-with-jami-attenberg-and-samuel-d-hunter.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y&_r=0

Photo of silly blogger on Santa's chair taken by Suzy Lolarga