Literature and the Human Body

Many people unintentionally bastardize Literature by using phrases which have to do with the Human Body. You be the judge if I'm to blame. Who knows? I might be indebted to little or complete knowledge when RESPECT is echoed.

It all started this afternoon on my way back from work. As usual, I was on the phone with a friend when a lady in her early 30s approached me and asked for a direction. I answered. Taking Map as my middle name, I knew I had assisted in that area and thought that was all. She thanked me and added, "Wow! What a sonorous voice you have". "Thanx", I said. I mean, it's a compliment, right? To balance compliments, I said, "You yourself have a psychedelic voice", even though it's untrue. This expression, according to her, is one I shouldn't have said. When I questioned to know the reason I shouldn't have, she emphatically voiced it was wrong, stating I should have said she has a sonorous voice as well. Shame suddenly gripped me after hearing this. Not a shame on my side, but a deep sense of shame which I felt on her behalf. I apologized; you know me, same cool guy, and left. Seconds passed and my friend and I couldn't stop investing our time in laughing about the whole drama that had just taken place when I fell a victim of another circumstance.

This time it was a lady in her mid 20s. And a little about me? I like to make a clean breast of something and so I told my friend of how beautiful the lady is, describing her as one who is broad in the beam. Shockingly, she heard, fiercely looked at me and asked,"who are you calling fat?" Known to both of us, the question is rhetorical. And she went off (both in words and movement). I know it means fat but not in that sense. I mean, not that she was huffing and puffing when I said it, but I meant it in a polite way, not to her but to my friend. How she heard is what still gobsmacks me.

Even if such an expression only meant being fat in the hips, so?

Why must one jump on another person’s throat when told that one is fat? If it’s the truth, live by it! I, personally, get mad when people shove the idea of linking fatness to healthiness down my throat. "Throat"? Must I use this word? Well, you have every right to think it is a bone of contention between you and me. This is because I had to bust a gut to get this post published. No doubt, after it has been creatively written, then I can be proud to say I did it by the sweat of my brow.

Reading and understanding a piece of work like this sometimes can be brain puzzling. Thus it doesn't mean I can't stomach readers who only see and skip for the fun of it. I'm one of many writers who tend to feed you with info like this making me seem as if I'm carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders. I really don't know if I should be doing this for the writers whose pens have been dropped or if I should be contemplating my navel. No, I'm not selfish. Despite the fact that doing this will land on my lap, I'm willing to go the extra mile. To some, it's unbelievable that I gird up my loins by putting different ideas together and begin to work on my posts before publication. I am, nonetheless, never a bundle of nerves.

Literature may seem uncalled for, but we all know it beautifies situations in good times like at the birth of a child, but most importantly in bad times - death. It mellows us out, powdering euphemism to soothe it (death) thereby avoiding shocking.