Greetings from the Editor
I
thought I would begin my message
with a joke from one of my favorite comedians,
Emo Phillips. He said, “I think
of my body as a temple…or at least
a relatively well managed Presbyterian
Youth Center.” I think Dr.
Vogel would have really liked that joke
because he was always saying, “practice
makes better.”
If you are reading this, you know
that we were finally able to get our
newsletter off the ground. I must
share with you all that as a person who
is very familiar with bureaucracy having
worked for the state for so many years,
I began to lose faith that the newsletter
would ever be published. However,
we have arrived and with your help we
will endure.
In anticipation of this newsletter,
something I thought would never happen,
I was undaunted in wanting to facilitate
a means of better communicating with
one another. I turned my sights on developing
a bulletin board…by the patients,
for the patients. If you come to
the Mezzanine offices of the OCC, you
will see the bulletin board in all of
its brightly colored glory. There
is room for writing notes to one another. I
cornered the market on Post-its and they
are available to you along with pens…or
at least there were two left out of the
six I started with…available for
you to share ideas, a recipe, solicit
support, get a walking buddy, begin a
patient-driven support group. Any
number of things is possible. I
am hoping to install one of these boards
on the 4th floor waiting room of the
OCC as well.
Given the laws governing confidentiality,
many of you signed releases of information
to receive our newsletter and many of
you signed additional releases in order
to contribute and become part of the
staff of the newsletter. For those of
you willing to contribute your time,
we really do need you to step up to the
plate. You are welcome to write
a story, share a recipe, conduct an interview… there's
lots of creative workspace here in our
little community.
I have gotten a lot of feedback on our
first edition. Folks from the gastric-banding
and medical-nutritional programs asked
for a voice in the newsletter. I
don’t think it matters what method
of intervention you choose for yourself
through the OCC. The bottom line
is that we are all fat people and formerly
fat people connected by the experience
of trying to live a quality life with
the hand we’ve been dealt. A
person who chooses Optifast as opposed
to Gastric Bypass surgery still knows
and shares the pain of being fat. We
all know what it is like to live in a
thin-obsessed society. We all know
what it is like to feel disempowered
by fad dieting etc. This newsletter
is for all of us who struggle with our
weight, body image etc.
We are a community, a collective work
in progress and we need one another not
only for support, but also for the lifestyle
choices we’ve embarked on as well. Who
else could understand you better than
someone else who is walking a mile right
beside you in the same shoes?
We really do need everyone’s help. It
takes a village or in our case a relatively
well managed auditorium full of fat and
formerly fat folk to make a difference.
Keep on keeping on…. Jody Abrams.
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