Tiny Traumas
Apr. 11th, 2021 11:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
steepholm"You have cute elbows," said a small piece of graffiti that I passed this morning.
That may seem rather a random message, but it brought back very clearly a time, about 15 years ago, when I actually did secretly pride myself on the cuteness of my elbows. Other parts of my body might have started to sag and wither, I would reflect, but my elbows were pristine - pert and smooth, and altogether (as it seemed to me) in remarkably good condition. I even said as much to the person I was with at the time, when the subject of "body parts I can bear" came up.
I was surprised and rather appalled when they laughed at me. Even now, I'm not sure whether it was the general idea of elbows being cute or my particular claim that elicited such mirth. Either would have been humiliating in its own way. In any case, it knocked my elbow confidence for six, and I've been careful not to flaunt ever them since.
Meanwhile, yesterday I took a turn around Bristol harbour. I realised I'd never actually sought out Banksy's 'Girl with a Pearl Earring,' with or without its COVID-19 addition, so I finally did, before moving on to the the boatbuilders in Underfall Yard, where they are halfway through fashioning a tidy keel for 'Mad Ray of Rye.'
That may seem rather a random message, but it brought back very clearly a time, about 15 years ago, when I actually did secretly pride myself on the cuteness of my elbows. Other parts of my body might have started to sag and wither, I would reflect, but my elbows were pristine - pert and smooth, and altogether (as it seemed to me) in remarkably good condition. I even said as much to the person I was with at the time, when the subject of "body parts I can bear" came up.
I was surprised and rather appalled when they laughed at me. Even now, I'm not sure whether it was the general idea of elbows being cute or my particular claim that elicited such mirth. Either would have been humiliating in its own way. In any case, it knocked my elbow confidence for six, and I've been careful not to flaunt ever them since.
Meanwhile, yesterday I took a turn around Bristol harbour. I realised I'd never actually sought out Banksy's 'Girl with a Pearl Earring,' with or without its COVID-19 addition, so I finally did, before moving on to the the boatbuilders in Underfall Yard, where they are halfway through fashioning a tidy keel for 'Mad Ray of Rye.'
(no subject)
Date: 2021-04-11 11:07 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-04-11 11:17 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-04-11 12:23 pm (UTC)Himself always tells me that it's my eyes that are the real turn on. I can blame the Romani ancestry for them being so dark brown that they're almost black.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-04-11 11:36 pm (UTC)