This is my last entry for Blog Week. Instead of the daily prompt I chose to answer a “Wildcard,” in this case addressing the question “If you could personify your diabetes or that of your loved one, what would it be like?” A full list of the answers on this topic is here.
Personify - to think of or represent (a thing or idea) as a person or as having human qualities or powers (Merriam - Webster)
I think that my diabetes is a bit like the personification of David Carradine as the character Kwai Chang Caine in the series Kung Fu. Some of you may have no memories of his iconic role as a Shaolin monk in the wild american west. I’d like to explore the theme of how my diabetes is personified by Carradine in this role.
Thanks Stuart, I’ve corrected that. I think as I get older stuff just goes and memory is the second thing to go. I don’t remember what the first thing is.
Diabetes resembles Kung Fu in that 1) it is hard and 2) you can practice it and 3) through practice you can improve your technique.
This is also essential to Mihalyi Csíkszentmihályi’s “Flow” a really interesting psychological concept. We read the book in our Tae Kwon Do classes however the gist of it is that humans get completely absorbed in what we do. The Wikipedia page for Flow is pretty interesting and informative and you can insert “diabetes” (whatever type or types you want…LOL!) pretty readily into the process as described there but the book is a pretty good read. Not my usual call numbers at the library but interesting enough that I’d recommend that. I read it sometime in the neighborhood of when I started pumping and, at least for me, it was a great match.
In Tai Chi Push Hands our teacher says, " Don’t insist, don’t resist." Works for diabetes self-care, too, but takes life-long attention and practice, n’est-ce pas?
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