Scar Tissue and Body Images

The imperfections deemed in contrast to societies perception of a perfectly formed human along with the physical scars of the past tells the story of an individual based on outward assumptions and inward reactions. A scar tells of an incident of trauma; this trauma can occur in youth when as children we play indelicately without worry over potential bodily harm and the long term affects of outward appearances. As teenagers these scars can tell the story of young adolescent misbehavior for example, the time when a teen snuck out of the house with the assumed stealth of a ninja jumping out the window and over the fence only to realize they couldn’t climb to save his or her life and were as graceful a bird covered in tar.  Incidents that face persons of every age including an accident such as a car crash, leaves a scar that can tell a story of a drunk driver and an innocent bystander or a family with children driving home after what will become the last time they spend a joyous day at an amusement park or any other event with their family.  A scar on the wrist can tell of the time you tried to end it all at the lowest of your mental state, puncture marks can tell of a previous battle with addiction, as recent as the freshest scar. A scar to the face, or leg, or butt or anywhere else for that matter, can tell of the neighbor’s pitbull that got out and you happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. To the dog you were an intruder or just too juicy to resist a nibble. These scars, if not publicly located, are features that we usually keep to ourselves but what about the so-called physical imperfects that we are born with.

My nose is too big, too small, I wish I had narrow/wider hips, bigger/smaller butt, broader/slimmer chest, bigger/smaller boobs, I wish I were taller/shorter, fairer/darker skinned, straighter/curlier hair, I wish I were skinny/ I wish I could gain even little bit more weight, and we all hear or say the rest. The psychological illustrations of your self perception can vary depending on the comparison of one body to the invisible cardboard cutout of the perfect man or woman.  When someone more closely resembles the cutout are they interpreted to by more confident than others, less often to be single, a good or conceited person?  What if they are against the cutout, even a startling contrast to it, are they not still beautiful? Do they feel beautiful on the inside and radiate with confidence? Or, do they shun themselves from extroverted behavior, assumed to have less dates than the average person or not deserving enough to have a piece of the cardboard cutout? Our body is a never ending feature length film, the never ending story of the biography of our existence, the music of our heart and the painting of our truth.  That is why we are not usually intimate with everyone, in every sense of the word intimate, especially of physical intimacy, we are revealing our true self to someone else by an exploration of our body.

It Depends on the one Day

As Pirate’s of the Caribbean character William Turner/The Flying Dutchman after being sentenced to ten years at sea and only one day allotted on land placed it, when asked about the one day, “It depends on the one day.” In that situation the sense was that if you were allowed one day on land after spending ten years at sea would you be able to satisfy any thirst you may feel while at sea and therefore the total significance of that day in someone’s life.

As an observer that will play absolutely zero intrusion on the life of any single person, if we as observers watched this individual would we by the end of the day be capable of telling generally anything about the person? Well first of all we would only be able to make a tale based solely on outward appearances and actions which may be fine for at least half the extrovert population, but what about everyone else? Beauty is only skin deep supposedly so we have to entire the mind of the individual during this observation to truly see their whims and woes, delights and dreams.  Just in the same manner as how Michael Cunningham framed the Hours he gave readers all access into the mind of almost every character that showed significance in understanding the mentality of our three main characters.

On a normal day, not giving birth, close-ones do not die, basically a day that would be somewhat mundane and forgettable because it happens so very often that at times the smaller things of the day are forgettable and overlooked, if we observed a person on that day, with full access to their mind we may be able to know the person completely by the end of the day.  Literature and film gives us these opportunities to explore a character’s very essence.

For some of us while we go about our everyday duties we are predominantly in our heads constantly thinking. We think of our future; dream of whom we wish to become, to be with, how and when we will impact and make our mark in the world before we make our grand departure.  We think about the past; in constant reflection of our memory viewed on silver screens of the mind, nightmares that we wish to forget, moments that want to never forget that last a life time instead of reality’s mere moments.  Our forever thought of what did I do wrong, what was right, did I make the right decisions, maybe if I did this I would have made out better in life, I should have spoken to this person, if I knew then what I know now would it be better? All of the past events that have created to people we see today.

We are marked with invisible scars of the good and bad of the past. So we push forward, we interact with the present, how we behave gives the observer an impression of our history. We see a familiar face and react negatively, as an observer we know you’ve had a rough history with this person. You see someone else with infatuation we understand there’s a level of romance or admiration between the parties. Therefore in response to the question of whether or not a person’s identity can be revealed over the course of a day, I still would say it depends on the day. Pending your not in an uncustomary mood you can observer the entity of one’s life in a single, mostly average day.