I
have been given a once-in-lifetime opportunity by Stephen Tremp, (A-Z Co-Host again) to SAFELY traverse a wormhole (AND return) for one
opportunity. Just one.
His partners in this adventure are Laura Eno, Luanne Smith, and Carrie Butler, who made our great badge. Thanks to all for organizing this.
Any
Dr. Who fans out there? Our whole family watches it, but I
guess because of who I am and what I think about, I found the
Cassandra episodes the most...thought provoking. As a recovering
anorexic, I couldn't help but latch on to the symbolism of what
society had become by the end of the universe.
I
suppose a little catch-up is necessary...since I know not all cool people are die-hard sci-fan like we are, let me tell you that Dr. Who is a Time Lord, the very
last of his race, and he travels through time and space in a “ship”
called a Tardis. From the outside it looks like a blue police call
box, but like in Harry Potter books, the inside is much bigger than the
outside. His job is to keep the world from ending at the wrong time.
Yeah, I wouldn't take the job either.
One
of the times they keep returning to is the end of the universe
(hmmm....can't imagine why that would interest anyone...) and they
keep finding Cassandra. She has become as thin as possible. She is
a piece of skin, stretched tight, and has to be misted to keep from
drying out. Yet she's happy. She has achieved ultimate “thinhood”,
something all of us anorexics long for.
In
the episode I'm thinking about, the Doctor takes her back in time,
waaaay back to when she looked like she was a human, and shows her
hosting a dinner party. IMDB won't give up any of those pictures, (though all the rest of the photo credits go to them) but here's her face,
and imagine the body to match. As the doctor is sitting with her as she dies, she says,
"I
was really beautiful, wasn't I.”
“Yes,
Cassandra, you were. You just didn't know it.”
“Thank
you for showing me this before I go.”
I
don't remember what happened next because of course my family (of
men) is worrying about if the sonic screwdriver will fix the
thingamajig long enough to let them get the Tardis back from the end
of time vortex to...wherever they were going.
Me?
I'm looking at flat Cassandra, about a millimeter thick, and how she
thought she'd achieved beauty. And then looking at real Cassandra
throwing a dinner party and having a good time.
So for my trip
through the worm hole, I'd go back to myself before I went all nuts, and tell myself I look beautiful. Just the way I was, when I was 14, a size 3, a successful gymnast, with my whole life ahead of me. I'd also tell myself NO. Do not let what anyone else thinks of your looks influence what YOU think about your looks. Because looks don't matter.
We are not the costume we walk around in. We are what is in our hearts. Love to those of you out there who really know what I'm talking about.
~Tina
