Gymnasium for the Soul
Excerpt from Phase 1 interview. The exercise pictured was derived from the content of the transcribed interview:
"Everybody said I look like my mother and I don’t quite see it. It was weird after she was dead and people would call me by her name accidentally. Now not only do I look like my cousin who is dead, I look like my grandmother a little. She had the chins. Even when I was a little girl. She was 54 when I was born and I’m older than that now. I always remember her with a chin and then she would get more chins and I’m going to get more chins. It’s funny—I’m not particularly vain but I can’t stand the chin. Sometimes I think, I could get a “waddlectomy” but then I think, no I don’t want to get the “waddlectomy” because then I won’t be connected to my grandmother. Of course I will be connected to my grandmother no matter what. So it’s this imperfection and my ugly legs that connect me to my mother. I don’t know if my mother—she died when she was 38—if she would have had two or three chins. It’s a funny thing to be connected by your body to somebody that you love very much, but the ugly part of your body."
Exercise: Our parts, connected
Tell the story of a body part that indicates your heritage. (Ex.: “my aunt’s waddle”, “my mother’s eyes”, etc.) How does this part of you relate to someone and how to you think/view/feel/consider it now? What is your relationship like with this person?
