My Allegory Of Obesity

Dear Journal,

With this week being Documentary Film Week, I set out to reread the Allegory of the Cave; which is my favorite philosophical piece. It was thrilling envisioning how the slave that faced the wall and felt chained down by his shackles. Then one day, his chains are undone and the journey began. My journey began back when I spent my first summer here with my mom.

Back in my adolescent years I was overweight and I knew it. As a country boy from Helena, Arkansas being overweight was nothing foreign nor taboo. My favorite quote was, "Baby you just big-boned". That was the defense for that summer. I spent the summer with my moms because she was busy with working and school, my grangran raised me back home till she completed school. Living with grangran was the best because there was always food around and she believed that a child should never be hungry. I can hear her now, "You better feed my baby"!

My mom drove up to the summer camp at hosted at a church. I thought it was going to be a thrilling experience but little did I know my chains were about to be undone. I walked through the door with my sack lunch of an apple, banana, pizza rolls, a cereal bar, and two of the four for a dollar chips. Some kids where playing near the front door and I heard some wear noise in another room. Some kids were chanting,

"There's a fat man at my door,
fat man at my door.
I have no cookies for you.
I have no cakes for you.
Cause your a M.W.T.
A Man With Titties!
A Man With Titties!"

I laughed and walked towards the main office to go sign in so I could enjoy this day. I met with the counselors, they got me signed in, grave me a light breakfast and said make friends til we start in 30 mins. I walked around and notice the kids; they were smaller and taller yet I was rather pudgy. Everyone played well until after camp officially starting with prayer and then doing some math drills. Well everything was fine till I got on the swings. I got on and they started to sqweek. No one else but the adults made the swing-set sqweek. Some of the girl playing in the dandelions started to poke fun and laugh. That was when I started to look down at my guy boobs and think about the chant. Maybe it wasn't acceptable being overweight.

I felt like the slave back in the cave fresh from his shackles, chasing towards the "light" because of its mystery. The closer he got to the light the more the started to realize that this light was the light from a fire casting shadows that seemed to be one thing but really was something else. The slave saw that the people casting and making the shadows were called puppet masters and the cast off were called images or shadows. In my childhood, finding out about how it wasn't really a positive sight seeing someone overweight but I was plastered with images of what "we should look like" but I started to actually like me despite what anyone had to say about me. Seeing the reality of things and how it was important for me to like myself first and then decide how I wanted my outward appearance to be.

In the movie Super Size Me it was rather interesting to see the people so caught up in their love for the food that it is still oblivious to them that they are killing themselves until they do something about it......   what will we do? Will we continue to stare at the wall or will we walk into the truth and the light.