Archive for the ‘body’ Category
Last year I set a HUGE goal for myself: to train for the qualifying race to win a spot on the U.S. paracanoe team heading to the 2013 World Sprints. It’s a particularly ambitious goal because I’m switching from the 6-man long distance ocean canoeing that I’ve been doing for several years to paddling a [...]
When I go through the “TSA personal massage” process, the agents giving the patdown are usually skeeved when they feel my right calf and foot, which are textured to feel like real flesh and bone. I’ve been told that it gives them the “chills” to feel something so real and know that it’s not. Or, [...]
Perhaps one hard lesson of the last few years of my life has been to learn to express uncomfortable feelings–the coping mechanism of so many years of suppressing sadness is hard to undo. But what I’ve realized is that I can tell when there’s something I need to express…because my left hand will be balled [...]
This post feels a bit like a PSA rather than a typical pilgrimsteps post. But I wanted to share my experience with PPIs just in case it might be of help to some of you…. Last year I struggled to paddle because of severe back pain that was due to some problems with my prosthesis. [...]
I’ve been going through some of my older posts lately, and came across this one that I posted just before heading to Europe last summer (oh, I can remember now how nervous I was about that trip, my first to Brussels). This phrase jumped out at me today from the Baz Luhrman speech: Enjoy your [...]
Last night when you were steering a canoe through some heavy swells you caught the edge of your thumbnail on the gunnel of the boat and the angle was just so that it pulled off half of the nail. And you swore and then realized that was going to hurt a lot and then you [...]
As I packed my suitcase for this trip, I remember pretty distinctly the moment that I packed all of my power cords–checking to make sure that I had phone charger, iPod charger, and laptop cord (all necessities for a technology conference). And it wasn’t until last night that I realized which power cord I forgot–the [...]
Cyborg writing is about the power to survive, not on the basis of original innocence, but on the basis of seizing the tools to mark the world that marked them as other. –Donna Haraway
I was re-reading some of my older writing recently in preparation for an art workshop at UCBerkeley this week and found this old recording of me reading my creative nonfiction story Pose [pdf download]. How odd it sounds to me to hear my voice. Like it’s me, but not me. As I listen I hear [...]
I’ve noticed that my friends don’t like to talk much about my “paddling” habit. I think it’s because you can’t really talk about outrigger canoeing without saying something that sounds more than a little bit dirty (note: I don’t row or kayak. I paddle. There is a difference…). Adopting this new sport has meant learning [...]
One of the by-products of my recent-ish divorce is that I just barely got my own health insurance policy. It’s the first time that I’ve had insurance on my own (not as the result of being a dependent of someone else), and seems a pretty big step for me in being financially and legally independent. [...]
My kids love to hear the story of when I had scurvy in college–perhaps because it’s a story that doesn’t seem to jive so well with the health-conscious mother than they know now (or maybe, because they see it as a story of my experimentation and learning)…(or maybe it’s just funny for them to think [...]
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