While I was taking a shower this morning, a queer thing suddenly dawned on me:
My calves and feet showed a geomorphic history that is very different than other parts of my body. They are gashed, scarred, pock-marked, and calloused, almost like the moon's surface. And that is because they had incurred a great deal of wounds, injuries, animal bites, and skin eruptions which, for some reason, my other body parts have so far mostly avoided.
After some thought, I readily understood why.
It was these legs and feet that carried my entire body through accumulated hundreds, perhaps thousands, of kilometers of rocky, muddy, thorny trails and through trackless forests and mountains and brushland; across countless river fordings, near-vertical rock climbs, coral-lined beach runs, and barbed-wire fences; through countless falls, stumbles, injuries and scratches; through leeches and insect bites, deep wounds and surgical stitches.
My battle record, my service medals, my most honorable citations are found not on some gala uniform or study room showcase, but on these calves and feet, in the scars and pockmarks and calluses.
I have no tattoos because I see no need to add to the plentiful marks that my body has already accumulated.
The most wondrous thing of all is that, through all these years, my legs and feet have remained as perhaps my strongest physical assets. The more I use them, the stronger they become. They have most admirably brought me to where I am now, halfway through life. I wish... I hope... I'm sure... they will carry me as ably through the next half, until I ford my last river and climb my last mountain.
And so, this morning, I decided to spend a little more time grooming my feet with loofa and oils, for no other reason but to recognize their lifetime service.
I wonder how other people see their life's records based on the geomorphic history of their bodies and limbs.
moonriver posted on Sep 28, 2007
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Comments
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mobil said on Sep 28, 2007....
My hands show more of my lifes trials and tribulations Moon. A little on my feet and legs but mostly my hands.A gunshot wound to my left hand split the bone near my middle finger, although I have almost complete use of that hand. For many years I had forced my will on other men and did so with my hands. Always going for the head, a most hard place to strike a blow.My knuckles have taken a beating and show the the scars and deformation from those times. Also I worked with them, froze them, sliced them and put my hands through the meat grinder gennerally.. Interesting topic Moon.........thanks -
queenparanoia said on Sep 28, 2007....
moon, that shows that your legs are so sexy... =) -
beyondtheveil said on Sep 28, 2007....
moon- With me, its the same as mobil- the hands. They are the ones I've always loved to work with. They are the ones that carried me through my career job that I liked so much. They are the ones that molded most of my hobbies.
They did the work on my house, they build, they write, they express.
My legs carried me to meet my wife, but my hands let me touch her.
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moonriver said on Sep 28, 2007....
mobil -- i imagine your hands have gone through hell... and helped you survive. i'd hate to be on the receiving end of those knuckles, though...lol. thanks for dropping by, my friend.
beyond -- i can understand that, insofar as i know a bit of your craft hobbies from your blogs. i like the way you wrote the last line... and i'm sure your wife liked it too :-)
queenie -- well, one dear friend did comment about my "sexy calves". i bet you've developed sexy legs too, now that you've joined that environmental group that climbs mountains and protects rainforests, where so many blood-sucking leeches abound looking for legs to clomp on ...lol.
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silverwhisper said on Sep 28, 2007....
fascinating blog entry, moon, and as ever, so eloquent.
for me, the physical scars i bear are almost exclusively a record of my stupidity: one from a woman w/ whom i was once involved, others from accidents in which i found myself, almost all things i ought to have been able to avoid.
ed -
moonriver said on Sep 28, 2007....
silver -- well, i didn't write that down in this blog, but a lot of the scars i have were the result of my stupidity too... or should i say, utter carelessness.
you got a scar from a woman, huh? what happened, did you have a quarrel and settled it with a fencing match, no protective gear? or did she hunt you down like an assassin? on second thought, no, please don't tell me...lol.
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silverwhisper said on Sep 28, 2007....
let's just say there was a heated difference of opinions and leave it at that, moon. :>
ed -
skald said on Sep 28, 2007....
Yes the feet and legs are important. Great post. Our bodies can tell stories about us. Thanks -
uniquely-ironic said on Sep 28, 2007....
My sister and I were talking about this awhile ago. I was asking her permission to be listed as my medical emergency contact, which is a heavy responsibility given my past medical history.I told her that I have several significant scars and marks from accidents, surgeries and illnesses. Some bear witness to the will to live, others the will to endure and/or thrive and some just show lapses in good judgement. Scars can look so rugged and handsome on men, but not so much on women. We giggled that I might make an entertaining if not puzzling case for autopsy.I do wish I had the perfect unmarked body some days. What I have is the body of a survivor. -
namyogrl said on Sep 28, 2007....
I have so many scars, not pretty for a woman, the two most significant are, one on my leg and one the back of my head. Both left there by acts of violence. They are my battle scars, proof that I can survive the worst of the worst. When I was young I was ashamed of them, but now I look/feel them and smile, because I know that because of them I am the person I am today. -
Mamie said on Sep 28, 2007....
cool post...I hope my battle scars for having lived are as eloquent somehow... maybe if I take out my contacts they will seem better! Mamie -
CreativeWoman said on Sep 28, 2007....
Moon,
Great post! Your legs show that you experience life in a wonderful way. :-) Mine, however, reveal that I am a klutz. The only scars I have on my legs are on my knee caps from when I fell at a parade two summers ago. That wasn't my proudest moment.
CW
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Pontius_Pilate said on Sep 28, 2007....
As far as actual physical scaring goes, my hands and arms are what shows the most for me. I do have some scars on my legs and feet, but mostly on my hands.
Ima 'fiddler' of sorts. I like messing with things, taking them apart to see how they went together and put them back together just to see that I can do it.
Love doing that kinda thing, always have.
As for the other type, like what silverwhisper mentions, ah yea well, I have enough, for two or three lifetimes.
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the_infernal_optimist said on Sep 28, 2007....
My body is a striking - some might say ugly - tribute to the greatest legacy I can ever leave: my children.
I have purple-red stripes (worse than any stretch marks I've seen - and mommy board members tend to share :-p), very angry-looking "scars," if you will, from my navel to my knees, front and back, because pregnancy was unkind to me. Their births were traumatic, but they live, and I live, and my body is forever marked as "she who gave life to them."
I hated looking at myself in the mirror (have to pass a big one to get into the shower) until I started looking at it that way. Now, they are my own battle scars, and though perhaps no particular valor was necessary to achieve my two sweethearts, there was certainly fear - and triumph. :)
~Infernal
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Pontius_Pilate said on Sep 28, 2007....
Oh yea, knew I was forgetting something.
While I understand why alot of women don't like the scars they have, I very rarely can agree with that. There are so many women that were dayumed good looking and for some reason the scars they had, made them just that much better IMHO.
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moonriver said on Sep 29, 2007....
ed -- ok, i'll leave well enough alone... :-) but permit me... i recall a good-quality frying pan that sophie, in a fit of instant madness, flung with fury at the kitchen wall, producing a nice clean dent on the pan and a tiny chip on the wall tile.
her action was more of drama and symbolism than any real intent to do mayhem. but every time i see that pan and the deep dent in it, i tremble to think of the latent violence that lurk within the gentlest and child-like souls among us, and how that hidden creature is unleashed by seemingly the most innocuous-looking encounters.
skald -- and our butts too, my friend. let's not forget the butt. one of these days i will have to write a blog about it. maybe i'll entitle the blog, "my silent suffering slave..." :-)
uniquely -- when i was younger i thought that flawless skins looked sexy. now i give more value to a person's character, and marks on the face, torso and limbs often help define that character. if you have the body of a survivor, be proud of it. i say, flaunt it! lol
namyogrl -- i like the way you put it...battle scars, proof that you can survive the worst. i recall the title of stephen crane's novel, the red badge of courage. now that we look at these "badges", we may experience that distinct mix of pride and shame, bravery and fear, joy and sadness, a sense of trophy and a sense of loss -- if such a perverse blend of emotions were at all possible.
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moonriver said on Sep 29, 2007....
mamie -- i think you should be proud of your battle scars. i'd like to see them without contacts too...lol. thanks for the nice comment, mamie... :-)
cw -- well... we all have these kinds of scars that, when we recall how we incurred them, we tend to wince more out of embarrassment rather than out of remembrance of pain. but look at it this way, my friend: whatever the actual cause, they are all marks of passing thru life and lessons gained.
your recent loss is still painful, i can imagine, but a few years from now, you'll probably shrug it off or even be able to brag about it as a symbol of your having survived and coped.
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moonriver said on Sep 29, 2007....
pontius -- i can imagine a craftsman type of personality in you, maybe like mobil and beyond, whose hands and arms would be unsurprisingly full of scars, blemishes and other marks. i have quite a few of these too. and yes, i find women with scars and a hint of the "weathered look" incomparably more fascinating than those with flawless, airbrushed cover-girl complexions.
infernal -- your descriptions are so detailed, you're turning me into a voyeur and making me uneasy, my friend ..:-) the inevitable marks that pregnancies and difficult childbirths leave on women's bodies are part of the charm of adult life. they are like the beautiful lived-in look of quaint but well-maintained inns and lodges.
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