Scars, Part One(2003)

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Scars, Part One(2003) . scars, part one (2003) when i belch, i finish by exhaling deeply as if ridding my lungs of any remaining gases. i don’t make a big deal of it. it’s just something i do. and every time i belch like that, i think of trish, the first person i ever knew who belched liked that. we only dated two and half months. graduation was enough to end our college romance, but she left the belch with me. there was a time when i could eat campbell’s tomato soup all by itself, but no now, not after kimberly. now a bowl of campbell’s tomato soup just seems… silly without a grilled cheese sandwich to sop it up. i have a scar on the knuckle of my right pointer finger from when i slammed the receiver of the phone so hard after breaking up with sonia it shattered both my phone and my skin. once a year, every year, just before the academy awards, that old scar prickles, and i’ll send sonia an e-mail asking for her oscar picks. she usually answers. two lives dig their nails into each other for a couple of months, a year, more, and leave curly-cues of flesh in their wake. favourite movies co-opted, catch phrases caught and adopted, books, discarded concert t-shirts for bands you’ve never seen found beneath futons so long ago you’ve forgotten they were once someone else’s. they are blackened rings hidden deep in the hearts of oaks. they are hiroshima shadows on crumbling brick walls. i don’t know what you will have left behind, how you will have marked me: a love for sweet tea and the central texas hill country, sushi and avocados and alt-country and naps and buttermilk pie and the endless pursuit of the perfect plate of migas, . a yearning to write from a deeper place, to calm my anger and defensiveness, to quiet my insecurities, to untie the knot deep inside my guts. arguments about traffic about money about jealousy about space about space about space. these scars are water stains on eggshell plaster walls, so faint you can only see them when you wrinkle your nose and squint. they are small half-moon crescents dug into the meat of my heel, whispering of barefoot summers fishing from wooden docks. they are badly-fused broken bones that ache when i read poems about rain. but i want you to know that i have torn my shirt off for you. whip my bare back with rose bushes and nettles, i’ll take the scars, and i cherish every one of them, and i gladly collected them, and the stories behind them, and the lessons learned, and all the songs that for the rest of my life will sing only of you. i’ll take the scars. they’re the only things that prove you have loved, and i have loved you as much as i could..
Recommended publications
  • Discovery of Bilaterian-Type Through-Guts in Cloudinomorphs from the Terminal Ediacaran Period
    ARTICLE https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13882-z OPEN Discovery of bilaterian-type through-guts in cloudinomorphs from the terminal Ediacaran Period James D. Schiffbauer 1,2*, Tara Selly 1,2*, Sarah M. Jacquet 1, Rachel A. Merz3, Lyle L. Nelson4, Michael A. Strange5, Yaoping Cai6 & Emily F. Smith 4 The fossil record of the terminal Ediacaran Period is typified by the iconic index fossil Cloudina and its relatives. These tube-dwellers are presumed to be primitive metazoans, but resolving 1234567890():,; their phylogenetic identity has remained a point of contention. The root of the problem is a lack of diagnostic features; that is, phylogenetic interpretations have largely centered on the only available source of information—their external tubes. Here, using tomographic analyses of fossils from the Wood Canyon Formation (Nevada, USA), we report evidence of recog- nizable soft tissues within their external tubes. Although alternative interpretations are plausible, these internal cylindrical structures may be most appropriately interpreted as digestive tracts, which would be, to date, the earliest-known occurrence of such features in the fossil record. If this interpretation is correct, their nature as one-way through-guts not only provides evidence for establishing these fossils as definitive bilaterians but also has implications for the long-debated phylogenetic position of the broader cloudinomorphs. 1 Department of Geological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA. 2 X-ray Microanalysis Core, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA. 3 Biology Department, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA 19081, USA. 4 Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA.
    [Show full text]
  • What Toyota Has to Say About Wussy-Boys
    What Toyota has to say about wussy-boys How could you doubt the manliness of Japanese men? Yes, I know, poor kid– Kamenashi Kazuya is Secret Garden’s posterchild for all that is confused and confusing in Japan. For the past several months my interest in gender issues in Japanese pop culture have had me following this topic of Soushokukei Danshi Nikushokukei Jyou, translated: Herbivore guys, carnivore girls. “Soushokukei danshi” describes a “trend” of ‘herbivore men’, or a group of young men (typically classified as being metrosexual) who are rejecting the typical guidelines of masculinity, and embracing an alternative style. It’s a type of Otomen syndrome, as it were, for anyone who has read the manga/seen the drama. Otomen follows the story of a young man who, on the outside appears to be a manly-man, but who secretly loves sewing, crochet, stuffed animals, strawberry parfaits and baking beautiful cakes. Soushokukei danshi have been described as being more “family oriented”, and being uninterested in women and dating. Next in line are the carnivorous girls, beautiful, intelligent, ambitious young women displaying all of the characteristics it seems the men should be displaying: charisma, confidence, focus, and guts. These go-getters have been described by the soushokukei danshi as being “scary” (I’m shaking in my boots already…). The typical dynamic spelled out by this phenomenon is a type of gender- role-reversal, where the herbivorous guys seem unable to get up the manly gumption to go after girls, but prefer to wait for the carnivorous beauty (as long as he’s not scared of her, that is) to hunt him down and snatch him up in one fell swoop (sounds okay to me…).
    [Show full text]
  • EMBRACE YOUR SCARS a SCAR Is Your Skin’S Natural Way of Knitting Itself Back Worry About Scars? Together After It’S Been Hurt
    ASK THE Experts own skin. We asked two of our Skin Cancer Founda- Mohs surgery on certain cases of melanoma, but tion member physicians to share their expertise on this requires additional training. Patients with more Healing everything you need to know to be scar-savvy, from advanced melanomas may require additional treat- wound care to scar repair. ments, such as radiation or medications, including immunotherapies and targeted therapies. What is a scar, exactly? How much do patients EMBRACE YOUR SCARS A SCAR is your skin’s natural way of knitting itself back worry about scars? together after it’s been hurt. Healing is a multipart pro- If you have a scar, congratulations! Think of it as a badge of courage and healing. cess, and the science behind it is complex. Dermatolog- WHEN DOCTORS tell patients they need skin cancer Our expert dermatologists tell how to nurture a new scar to get the ic surgeon Mary-Margaret Kober, MD, who practices surgery, they hear a wide range of reactions, says Dr. in Santa Rosa, California, helps explain it in simple Kober. “I have some patients who say, ‘I don’t care best outcome — and, if needed, how to fix an old scar to make it look better. terms. Wherever there’s been an injury, she says, the about the scar, Doc. I don’t have a modeling career. by Julie Bain first thing that happens is that blood cells called plate- Just get the cancer out.’ That’s one extreme.” There lets gather together and form a clot to stop the bleed- are also patients on the other side of the spectrum, ing and seal the wound.
    [Show full text]
  • Sunday, 11 April 2021 John 20:19-31 Pr Gus Schutz 'Then He Said
    Sunday, 11 April 2021 John 20:19-31 Pr Gus Schutz ‘Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”’ The scars of Jesus were very important for Thomas. It can be easy to be a little hard on Thomas. I think tradition has done that. Put yourself in his situation. Wouldn’t you also want some visible proof to connect what you see with the events of Good Friday? So that you can know without doubt that this really is the same Jesus who was hung up on the cross? The truth is the scars of Jesus were important for all the disciples. They confirmed to them that it truly was Jesus. In the same body, now risen and transformed. • When Jesus first appeared to the disciples, Luke tells us: “they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit.” (Luke 24:37) Then he showed them his scars, saying to them: “Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.” (Luke 24:39) • The apostle John reports that Jesus: “showed them his hands and feet” (John 20:20) This was the first time, when Thomas was not with them. So he insisted he must see the scars when it was reported to him that the others had seen Jesus. Eight days later the wish and prayer of Thomas was answered. Jesus offered him his scars, saying: “Put your finger here; see my hands.
    [Show full text]
  • Guts Teacher Guide
    Teacher Handbook Eastern MT Area Health Education Center 123 S. 27th St. Billings, MT 59101 406-247-3379 Use Log Please log your use of this curriculum box so that we can track the number of students impacted by the curriculum. Thank you! Teacher School Grade # of Time spent Comments Name students with box contents Background for the teacher… Background for digestion: Before we investigate the many different problems individuals can have with digestion, here’s how normal digestion works - What Is Digestion? Digestion is the complex process of turning the food you eat into the energy you need to survive. The digestive tract (or gut) is a long twisting tube that starts at the mouth and ends at the anus. It is made up of a series of muscles that coordinate the movement of food and other cells that produce enzymes and hormones to aid in the breakdown of food. For the purpose of this curriculum, we have focused our reference to “guts” primarily on the following 7 organs: small intestine, large intestine, stomach, liver, pancreas, appendix, and gall bladder. If you choose to use lesson extensions or further research with students, the other aspects of the digestive process can be investigated. Stop 1: The Mouth -The mouth is the beginning of the digestive system, and, in fact, digestion starts here before you even take the first bite of a meal. The smell of food triggers the salivary glands in your mouth to secrete saliva, causing your mouth to water. When you actually taste the food, saliva increases. Once you start chewing and breaking the food down into pieces small enough to be digested other mechanisms come into play.
    [Show full text]
  • The PMA Technique: Finally! a Breakthrough for Visionaries and Go Getters!
    powered by Great Ideas to Improve Your Life 950,000 Subscribers ...and Growing The PMA Technique: Finally! A Breakthrough for Visionaries and Go Getters! By Jacob Korthuis A New Human Awareness Transforming our inner drives and belief systems is the key to revolutionizing our personal reflections regarding health, self-improvement, relationships and behavior. For too long, we were not aware enough of the power and value of our inner environment and especially how to change negative beliefs and behavior into positive proactive energy. Now, through the groundbreaking Progressive Mental Alignment® (PMA) Technique, this tool is available to you. The PMA belief system transformation technique is based on the discovery of a new phenomenon called “Bad Clusters.” These clusters serve as subconscious neurophysiologic jamming stations, placing a negative sabotaging influence on more than 75% of our thoughts, belief systems, decisions, and behaviors. We all experience their effects when we’re suddenly taken out of our flow, or when insignificant things abruptly disturb our good mood and productivity. Everybody has these bad clusters in their subconscious. They work like computer viruses on all your operating systems. They also imprison large amounts of energy that would otherwise be freed for proactive use. We all carry a certain amount of emotional burdens in our backpack. But we don’t want constantly to be reminded of this misery. “You have to leave the past alone,” is a commonly heard expression. The recent discovery of bad clusters clearly shows that you may decide to leave the past alone, but the past won’t leave you alone as long as those bad clusters remain undetected! These particular hidden elements of the past make you sick and sabotage your behavior.
    [Show full text]
  • How to Avoid Training Scars by CHRISTOPHER BRENNAN
    Continuing Education Course How to Avoid Training Scars BY CHRISTOPHER BRENNAN TRAINING THE FIRE SERVICE FOR 136 YEARS To earn continuing education credits, you must successfully complete the course examination. The cost for this CE exam is $25.00. For group rates, call (973) 251-5055. AVOIDING TRAINING SCARS ● methodology was Donald Meichenbaum, who initially “fo- ally five or 10 push-ups. The initial time standards are very How to Avoid cused on cognitive-emotional theory of anxiety and learning generous, 90 seconds or so, to train the student to handle the approaches for the development of cognitive and relaxation stress. We could, of course, make the initial time standard 60 coping skills for anxiety reduction.”1 Survival skills instruc- seconds (which is the minimum passing time), but then there tors have used variations on SIT from the days of ancient would be a lot of push-ups done and a great increase in anxi- warrior cultures without having a specific label for it. ety. Once we warm the group up with a few 90-second drills Training Scars From the brutal rites of passage that are part of initiation (which generally everyone passes), we can then slowly work into elite military organizations through the burn tower evo- our way toward the 60-second mark. As the time standard lutions with recruit academy candidates to law enforcement gets closer to the neurological skill capacity of the students, defensive tactics courses, those who are expected to place their anxiety will increase (they don’t want to do push-ups). their bodies in harm’s way have attempted from time imme- We coach them to control their breathing and focus on their morial to develop a mental toughness in their students.
    [Show full text]
  • How to Know If You're Dead
    How to Know If You're Dead Beating-heart cadavers, live burial, and the scientific search for the soul A patient on the way to surgery travels at twice the speed of a patient on the way to the morgue. Gurneys that ferry the living through hospital corridors move forward in an aura of purpose and push, flanked by caregivers with long strides and set faces, steadying IVs, pumping ambu bags, barreling into double doors. A gurney with a cadaver commands no urgency. It is wheeled by a single person, calmly and with little notice, like a shopping cart. For this reason, I thought I would be able to tell when the dead woman was wheeled past. I have been standing around at the nurses' station on one of the surgery floors of the University of California at San Francisco Medical Center, watching gurneys go by and waiting for Von Peterson, public affairs manager of the California Transplant Donor Network, and a cadaver I will call H. "There's your patient," says the charge nurse. A commotion of turquoise legs passes with unexpected forward-leaning urgency. H is unique in that she is both a dead person and a patient on the way to surgery. She is what's known as a "beating-heart cadaver," alive and well everywhere but her brain. Up until artificial respiration was developed, there was no such entity; without a functioning brain, a body will not breathe on its own. But hook it up to a respirator and its heart will beat, and the rest of its organs will, for a matter of days, continue to thrive.
    [Show full text]
  • Final Data Report.Aj.SLB Guts JD
    Gut Contents Analysis of Four Fish Species Collected in San Leandro Bay in August 2016 Prepared by: Andrew Jahn Independent Contractor CONTRIBUTION #900 / November 2018 ` Gut Contents Analysis of Four Fish Species Collected in San Leandro Bay in August 2016 Final Report 7 November 2018 Andrew Jahn, PhD Ukiah, CA [email protected] SFEI Contribution #900 Suggested citation: Jahn. 2018. Gut Contents Analysis of Four Fish Species Collected in San Leandro Bay in August 2016. SFEI Contribution #900. San Francisco Estuary Institute, Richmond, CA. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In support of PCB modeling for San Leandro Bay, a Priority Margin Unit (PMU) for PCB load reduction in the estuary, fish samples of four species (topsmelt, shiner perch, white croaker, and northern anchovy ) were obtained in August 2016 for both tissue analysis and examination of gut contents. The bay was sampled at eight locations, with a repeated sampling at one location (Airport Lagoon) for one species (topsmelt). Fish were measured, weighed, and dissected, and their gut contents examined microscopically. Topsmelt (9 samples, 188 specimens) had the greatest variety of food items, with gammarid amphipods and chain diatoms predominating. Some topsmelt, especially larger individuals, consumed macroalgae as a major dietary component. Two samples at two sites for shiner perch (20 fish each) had contents composed of close to 50% gammarids at both sites, but differed in proportions of bivalves and polychaetes among the important food items. The one sample of white croaker had consumed mostly gammarids, with fish and polychaetes ranking next in importance. A single sample of northern anchovy (20 fish analyzed) differed radically from the other species in consuming mainly a diatom that appears to have been filtered from the water column.
    [Show full text]
  • The Theme of the Double in Ian Rankin´S Knots & Crosses and Hide And
    Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences and Education The theme of the Double in Ian Rankin´s Knots & Crosses and Hide and Seek. — Hilde O. Nordjord Master Thesis in English Literature ENG-3992 May 2016 Abstract. This thesis is about the theme of the Double in Ian Rankin´s two first crime novels Knots & Crosses, published in 1987, and Hide and Seek, published in 1990. My thesis statement is that Ian Rankin has developed the theme of doubling with great weaknesses since he has chosen to place the characters so closely together in both novels. Many different games are played in the novels. That is typical of the genre and for these two specific novels. Antagonists and protagonists play games with each other in order to gain information, to figure each other out in order to have the upper hand or simply to survive. The characters relate to books in different ways, but all of the important characters are in one way or another involved with books. The titles of the novels do not only reflect what the novels contain, but there are also literal and non-literal examples of how the words in the titles are used in both texts. The actions of strangulation and choking are present in the first novel as a murder method and a link between Detective John Rebus and the murderer, Gordon Reeve. In the second novel these actions are merely used as a plot device. The connection between Robert Louis Stevenson´s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is undisputable in both novels. It reiterates the importance of the theme and shows off the likeness between the characters in Rankin´s novels and the Jekyll and Hyde character.
    [Show full text]
  • PROSECUTING GANG CASES:WHAT LOCAL PROSECUTORS NEED to KNOW Members
    SPECIAL TOPICS SERIES American Prosecutors Research Institute ProsecutingProsecuting GangGang CasesCases What Local Prosecutors Need to Know Bureau of Justice Assistance Office of Justice Programs ■ U.S. Department of Justice American Prosecutors Research Institute 99 Canal Center Plaza, Suite 510 Alexandria,VA 22314 www.ndaa-apri.org Newman Flanagan President Debra Whitcomb Acting Chief Administrator Director, Grant Programs and Development George Ross Director, Grants Management This information is offered for educational purposes only and is not legal advice.This project was supported by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, United States Department of Justice under Grant Number 2001-GP-CX-K050. Points of view or opinions expressed in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Bureau of Justice Assistance, United States Department of Justice, the National District Attorneys Association or the American Prosecutors Research Institute. The American Prosecutors Research Institute is the nonprofit research, training and technical assistance affiliate of the National District Attorneys Association. SPECIAL TOPICS SERIES ProsecutingProsecuting GangGang CasesCases What Local Prosecutors Need to Know April 2004 Alan Jackson Deputy District Attorney Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office Los Angeles, CA American Prosecutors Research Institute T ABLE OF C ONTENTS 1Forward 3 Author’s Acknowledgements 5 Introduction 7Overview of a Gang Case: Getting Jurors Out of the Courtroom What Gang
    [Show full text]
  • 40Th Anniversary Primer
    200040TH ANNIVERSARY AD PRIMER 40TH INSERT.indd 1 07/02/2017 15:28 JUDGE DREDD FACT-FILE First appearance: 2000 AD Prog 2 (1977) Created by: John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Judge Dredd is a totalitarian cop in Mega- Blue in a sprawling ensemble-led police an awful lot of blood in his time. City One, the vast, crime-ridden American procedural about Dredd cleaning up crime East Coast megalopolis of over 72 million and corruption in the deadly Sector 301. With stories such as A History of Violence people set 122 years in the future. Judges and Button Man, plus your hard-boiled possess draconian powers that make them Mega-City Undercover Vols. 1-3 action heroes like Dredd and One-Eyed judge, jury, and executioner – allowing them Get to know the dark underbelly of policing Jack, your love of crime fiction is obvious. to summarily execute criminals or arrest Mega-City One with Justice Department’s Has this grown over the years? What citizens for the smallest of crimes. undercover division. Includes Andy Diggle writers have influenced you? and Jock’s smooth operator Lenny Zero, and Created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra Rob Williams, Henry Flint, Rufus Dayglo and JW: I go through phases. Over the past few in 1977, Dredd is 2000 AD’s longest- D’Israeli’s gritty Low Life. years I have read a lot of crime fiction, running character. Part dystopian science enjoyed some, disliked much. I wouldn’t like fiction, part satirical black comedy, part DREDD: Urban Warfare to pick any prose writer out as an influence.
    [Show full text]