Fencing Bear at Prayer

The euphoria's wearing off a bit and my ear has started to throb, ever so slightly, but I'm still really glad I did it yesterday. "Why?", you may ask, as, in fact, one of my friends at fencing did the other night at practice when, showing off my new navel ring, I mentioned that I was thinking of getting another piercing at the top of my ear: "Is it that you want to feel young again?" You'd think so, yes? Piercing is one of those things that the young are really into; mature adults like my 44-year-old self should not be adding holes to their bodies. We should--if this is true--be content with the ones we already have, right? Well, I don't know. Certainly the majority of my piercings (two each in my earlobes) I got when I was young, the first set in middle school when I was old enough that my mom could be persuaded to drive me to the mall, the second set in high school when I could drive myself there. I once had a third hole in one of my lobes, b...

Inspired (or horrified) by the amount I just spent on my new belly ring, I've been concentrating these past few weeks on coming to terms, yet again, with my eating . For all those out there who might still be struggling, I cannot recommend highly enough Vikki Hansen and Shawn Goodman's The Seven Secrets of Slim People (New York: Harper Collins, 1997). The secrets are very simple: 1. "Listen to your body, not your mind." 2. "Eat with awareness and without judgment." 3. "Eat only when you are physically hungry." 4. "Stop eating when you are satisfied, not full." 5. "Eat what you want most." 6. "Notice how your body feels after eating." 7. "Honor your feelings, don't bury them under food." That's it. Nothing to count (except, of course, the seven secrets), nothing to measure, nothing to weigh--above all, not yourself; nor, they recommend, should you even look at the size labels in your clothes. The...

Things $1000 (or thereabouts) will buy: 1. A 32" Sony Flat Panel TV (with laptop hook-up for watching DVDs) plus an iPod dock 2. Surgery for your dying cat 3. One quarter (10 weeks) of After School Study Hall for one 7th grader 4. A New Edition LOTR cloak (New Zealand dollars) 5. Athletic club membership fee for 4.3 months (including yoga classes and fencing lessons) 6. Roundtrip flight from Chicago to London in August (if purchased now on Expedia.com) 7. Food for a family of three for a month (shopping at Whole Foods) 8. Custom designed jeweled navel ring

I have a beautiful sister. I know this because men whom I have just met have been telling me so for pretty much my whole life, typically taking me aside to whisper it confidentially, as if somehow I hadn't noticed before. What they want (I guess) is for me to say something to her--"He thinks you're gorgeous"--but, of course, a) she already knows this and b) they don't really need me to tell her that they think this. I'm not really sure how I am supposed to respond. My husband (God bless him) thinks I'm crazy, not to mention just as beautiful as my sister (if not more so). But, then, he is in love with me. Does he love me because I am beautiful or does he see me as beautiful because he loves me? I wonder if a man (other than my husband) has ever taken my sister aside to gush over how beautiful he thinks I am. Here's the thing: why should I care? My husband loves me and I am utterly uninterested in any other man. Don't get me wrong. It'...

Yes, I'm still disappointed with myself . Last year, the week after I did so poorly at Nationals, I decided to get my navel pierced, in part because I'd just spent ten days in Miami Beach and had seen how many women (and men!) have had their tummies done and so was thinking, "Why not? My tummy is surely as good as theirs"; in part because I wanted something that I could change about who I was. And, of course, because I think it looks cool. This year, now that the piercing is fully healed,[1] I'm shopping for navel jewelry, but everything I like comes in diamonds and I'm not sure I can persuade my husband that we can afford (sigh) more bling right at this moment. I'm not really interested in getting a tattoo and I don't have any more body parts I'm eager to pierce [2], so I'm thrust back upon my blog and trying to think my way out of the paper bag that is my ego-self. But, oh, how I wish there was something else I wanted to have pierced...