Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Absolutely Exhausted

Hi dear readers. For the past two weeks I have been absolutely exhausted. I got a cold Friday; but, I got over it and just remained exhausted. I cannot tell you how much I have slept in the last few days; but, it far outnumbers the hours that I was awake. I don't think I have spent two hours outside of the apartment in five days and that was to get food.

Not looking for any pity, my body knows what it needs even if I don't. I like my body, it has served me well for over half a century. It is no longer youthful and that of a gymnast; but, it is not totally worn either, I would say I am in fair shape for a man my age. I think of my body as my friend. Even after the divorce it never occurred to me to get a face lift, hair plugs or liposuction. I don't even dye my hair. I don't wear contacts, I wear glasses. I am not into body modification, I like mine the way it was given to me.

I know a lot of people don't like their bodies. I don't know how you can hate your own body. I understand wanting more of it if you have a missing limb; but, not hating what remains. Most people have heard of Chaz Bono, she is the daughter of Sonny and Cher. She decided she didn't like being female so she had some surgery and some hormone treatments or so I have read. I recently read that she wanted to have surgery in Europe to give her something resembling men's genitalia. I don't know much about the surgery and don't think I wish to. When I read about it I thought, how sad it is to not like who you are down to your body.

It is not for me to judge Ms. Bono; but, if you put such a thing in public then we are free to consider it and what it means. I wonder, if she could get gene therapy that actually replaced one of her X chromosomes with a Y chromosome, would she? That would be the ultimate in body modification; but, it would be even more because we would have to wonder where the Y chromosome came from, would she now be the product of three parents?

Here is an alternative view. What if rather than giving her a Y chromosome, science was able to remove part of her X chromosome and turn it into a Y chromosome, what aspects of her would be lost in the transformation? Pretty wild stuff; but, I have been sleeping for five days straight. Peace.