nit-picking
Most of my readers know that I do not like clutter. I like to throw things away. Very much. It makes me feel so much better. Cleansed.
This morning I was in Cheryl's office using her small mirror to help me root around my head for white hairs to pluck. She watched as I plucked a little one up front.
C.: Don't pick it.
Me: I like to remove things from my person. I like to pick my skin off, pick scabs off, cut my toenails, pluck white hairs. Get them off of me. Throw them away.
C.: And yet you're fascinated by the personal essay.
At first I didn't see the connection, but Cheryl explained that she thinks of the personal essay as a place for collecting. Memories and details and experiences. Well, huh.
I do love collecting experiences in language. I do love the personal essay. It's a place to put things that doesn't add to clutter, that doesn't weigh much, that helps me organize my life.
I'm a nit-picker. I'm a gorilla grooming my mate, searching for nits. I'm always looking in Belly's ears to see if they need cleaning, I love brushing her, and I'm always picking boogies out of her eyes.
And S. Well, S. will never have ear hair as long as we're together.
posted by aerobil @ 9:28 AM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Is this learned behavior from the way your mother treated you as a child? I'm curious, because I tend to be like you, too; however, my mother was continuing straightening my skirt, telling me to sit with my knees together, sit up straight, don't fall asleep (at 11 o'clock at night on a subway train!)and on and on. I've always blamed her for setting me up to be selfconscious and for a long time feeling uneasy in my own skin because I was afraid I wouldn't measure up--I mean, if you can't measure up so your own mother finds you acceptable . . . .
shoe
Mine is more about getting stuff off the body, not so much about straightening up. I can't remember my mother ever doing these types of things, though.
I see the mom connection, though--The GF does this to me all the time, and I'm always batting her hands away...
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