Hello, reader. How are you doing? I was talking with my fam-friend about creativity and health, fatness, and how our feelings about our bodies affect how we treat ourselves. That conversation sparked this post.
love
Bodies are so amazing: miraculous and varied. Many fat people do neglect our bodies–it’s true. But the dysfunction of our culture is why–it’s not the directionality most people think. I mean we are violently shamed for being fat. So it makes sense we would hate our bodies. Why care for and cherish what is hated?
It takes everything I have, to defy culture and love my disabled, fat queer body. I love my body through movement, sunshine, rest, and delicious foods. I avoid popular media in order to keep my self-love intact also.
Finally I got a new doctor, and I’m excited to have an appointment after weeks of struggling with bureaucracy, phone calls not returned, searching. My creativity to make my own path is a fuckton of work.
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In line at the food bank, I said I’ve cooked amazing things in hotel rooms. My dear friend said not everyone has my wild creativity. So true. I’m sorry many people are cut off from creativity. It’s partly capitalism; making things is supposed to be tied to earning money.
Yes, I am a special pumpkin. But people have vast wells of creativity that they have shut with metal covers. Ideas of productivity, being good at everything, and white perfectionism have sealed the wells.
We need bravery and freedom to try new things, make art, express ourselves. Let’s create a functional culture that nurtures our actual well-being, not that’s set up for making money.
Let’s help people unseal the wells of creativity. We do that a little bit with radical mental health. And by modeling trans queer liberation, our very lives are ways we shine out the truth.
creativity and health
Creativity and health go together because every body is different and needs to be cared for in its own customized way. I see people hand over their health and power to the mainstream medical system. I’ve seen others hand over their health and power to alternative health.
My health is so important that I wouldn’t hand it over to anyone. I need to keep my power for myself. I want medical professionals to be consultants, advising me with their expertise while I hold the reins.
No one knows my own experience of my body more than I do. The myth that only doctors can handle medical problems is harmful to all of us.
It especially hurts, the myth that psychiatrists help people who are struggling with big feelings or having a different worldview-perspective. Yes, it’s easier to call 911 on someone than to listen and care. It’s easier to make it someone else’s problem than to show up for another human being.
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Creativity helps me
- make art
- write
- cook veg meals
- dance
- tend gardens
- decorate a room or car
- playfully joke with language
- have authentic relationships
- fill my unconventional life with meaning
Yes, I’m not on the beaten path. That same creativity also helps me care for my unique fat, disabled body.
Years back I used to hate myself. These days I adore myself and trust myself more than ever. My body is my joy.
Ming, chosen family, and close friends help me do what I need to do, respecting my body also. Thank you for that, dear pumpkins.