That Place You Love: Real People. Real Stories.
Round-Up on Barbie; Next-Up Perception. Saturday is not Friday... I know.
No me pareces de ochenta y cinco…
In the wonderful Spanish health care system, we meet numerous nurses, doctors, and attendants in any one visit. And it’s always the same.
“You don’t look eighty-five.”
Maybe it’s a polite attempt at a compliment, but I think they really are surprised when they look away from the computer screen that holds all of my mother’s medical information - the various data about her heart, her circulation, her knees, her feet, her lumbar… and so on.
They see a woman who could be in her seventies.
For anyone under fifty, these age discrepancies - sixties, seventies, eighties - are unfathomable. At fifty-two, I barely see the difference between people in their late-teens, twenties, and early thirties.
It’s all about perception and what we perceive to be true. Meanwhile, the body has lived all of those years, keeping up with us and sometimes not.
Round Up on Barbie & New Theme Perception below!
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8 Contributors weighed in on BARBIE:
I went on a tangent about the impossible high heel Barbie foot, aka floint, and the carnage I encountered after our dogs grew tired of playing with each other.
(in order of appearance)
Debbie K recalls Barbie before she went pink, the original Barbie trade-in for bendable legs, and the joy of a toy that spurred creativity & imagination.
Julia W fashions the unfashionable Barbie that can’t be marketed, complete with buzz cut, tattoos, and a mini-van… I’ll have the nigiri, says this Barbie.
Karen E prefers the soft, cuddly animal to Barbie’s hardened plastic and synthetic hair, knowing the stiff-legged blonde wouldn’t last in the gulleys.
Carol M digs into the toxic expectations of female perfection borne out of the Barbie syndrome and finally finds peace with self-acceptance in the mirror.
Carole D’s Barbie moment was a spinning wheel that braided yarn with a snappy jingle that far outlasted the spinning wheel’s attraction and incomplete afghans.
Georgi T recalls early Barbie & Ken encounters as disruptors of play time, with all those clothes, as well as establishing a misconception about male genitalia.
Melissa S’s Barbie memories are overshadowed by Jane West, a frontierswoman in buckskin who could survive any challenge with a hearty bowl of carrot soup.
Intact Animal shares the experience of life on the road controlling Disney memorabilia with a grumpy ex-Ringling Bros. trapeze artist named Enrique.
READ & HEART this week’s writers & SHARE your own story in the comments.
Next Up: PERCEPTION
I spent most of Friday night in the hospital with my mom.
When doctors and nurses treat her like the 85-year-olds they’re used to seeing, all she has to do is open her mouth, make a joke, or sing a song and they know they’re dealing with someone other than they perceived.
They pay better attention to her as a patient when they SEE her.
We may perceive people to be a certain way when we don’t take the time to look, listen, and ask questions. On Monday, I’ll write about Perception through the lens of truth.
Where does PERCEPTION take you?
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More to come on Monday….
Have a great weekend.
Sincerely, for real.
Michelle