[Gypsy2222]

~Chuckle~

Well said Jade...

However, it makes one wonder just how much self image plays a role in the psyche of man as mankind continues with his (or her) obsession with the illusion provided in the reflection of the mirror... How much has our idealized self image formed who we are? I mean, though it is true, we are who we are regardless of shape and size, how much has our hunt in the perfection of self damaged us? I know that I am not alone in the realization that I found who I was in spite of what I looked like, but also partially because I needed to know what I looked like in the first place to get beyond the dissatisfaction as well... After all, part of what it is to find the self is to struggle with the self...

Blegh, leave it to me to take this conversation so off topic...

I believe the question was "What are some of the body image issues some of us have on this board"... (I am paraphrasing)...

Well, I'll not spill all because I don't want you people to know exactly how shallow I am about self image at times... But the primary two things are my teeth and my general shape...

If only I could go back and tell myself to brush my teeth more often... ~Chuckle~... Please note that I have never posted a full toothed grin in pictures... Not saying that they are rediculously ugly or mostly missing or anything... But think... I have been smoking for roughly fifteen years and drinking coffee for twenty... Not to mention one of my baby teeth (an incisor) never fell out ( I used to joke about it being my fang and I was only half vampy so I guess I wasn't goth enough to hang out with the oh so gothy ones)... Now, for at least five of those years I was on the streets (not the best place for hygeine) and then theres the army... lol... etc. All excuses... I looked into it, the price for the type of dental workup I would like is certainly not cheap by far...

Now, the body shape thing I am at least making progress on, I have always been predisposed to being a skinny kind of guy but thanks to the Army's MRE's (talk about high calorie!), dining facility and gyms (not to mention being in the desert for a year, with little to do but work out, and hang out here) I am certainly making progress towards the Brad Pitt body (that should be trademarked or something... ~Chuckle~) I have been aiming for... But not there yet...

Ok, you can say it now, I am more than slightly shallow about how I look... I just hated being "the skinny guy" in high school so much I never let it go... and I'll never go back to being that skinny again... ~Chuckle~ and if you think I'm slim now, you should have seen me six years ago, heroin sheik didn't have nothing on me... lol... the Army stuck me on double rations on entering basic... AND I had to have a weight waver signed for me to get in... I've come a long way from that but I've still got about 15 more pounds to go... aught to take me another year or two if I'm diligent...

Blegh... enough about that...


Look!... Shiney!>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>


Gypsy~