Week 22 - It's a Kind of Magic

Not with a bang but a whimper.  A very famous line.  Perhaps the most famous of author T. S. Eliot from his poem The Hollow Men.  It may be hard to believe, but, that is how my results this week have left me.  The big news of course is that I weighed in at under 100kg!  I have included official documented evidence in the image here.

You may remember the internal battle that rages inside me between my old and new scales, documented in an earlier post.  I am comfortable reporting this milestone as it was achieved on my new scales.  On the day, the old ones had me at 98.3kg.  To put that figure in perspective, I have had those scales for quite some time and that number on those scales is the lightest I have been in around 15 or more years, if not my entire adult life.  So then, why has this all left me a little cold and not bouncing off the walls?

In truth, I am very pleased with the result.  Since February I have lost 21kg and am now over 40kg lighter than I was at my heaviest.  This week's results represent a 1.2kg loss and a staggering 1.4kg average loss, which, at this stage of the game is remarkable in of itself.  What is sitting in the forefront of my mind however, is that the job is not done.  I still have some of the hardest yards to run.  In previous attempts to get healthy, I have allowed myself to get too caught up in this particular milestone and in true Shakespearean tragic fashion, it was the flaw that lead to my obese downfall.  Something to keep in mind also, is that despite being so much fitter and healthier, according to what so many health professionals rely on as an indicator of healthy weight, the good old Body Mass Index (BMI), I am not only 7kg from my personal goal, but, similarly I am that same amount into the overweight category.  I am closer to the healthy range than the obese now for sure.  But, one of my primary goals in this exercise was to not be one of the so often quoted statistic in the media, that of Australia's "X% of adults who are overweight or obese".  So you can definitely say there is satisfaction this week, but, over and above that, the fire is still burning.

I am going to go off on a completely unrelated tangent at this point, so be warned.  The title of this post is reference to a line from the amazing movie "Highlander" and similarly to lyrics in a song by Queen from the soundtrack to the film.  I use it in reference to how I perceive the process by which my two children have and are learning to read.

I remember clearly with my eldest daughter, reading with her at night and having her read to me when she started school.  Both to encourage her curiosity, imagination and all the good things that come from reading books, and also to foster the growth in her ability to read.  My youngest daughter started school this year and she, even more so than her sister before her, has dived into books with a fervour that I am sad to say is not shared by her father.  Books have not been something that I have ever really taken to, even though I don't believe I could ever satiate my desire to learn new and interesting things.  In reading and listening to my youngest read her first books this year, my mind was cast back to the sensation I had at the time my eldest started in the same way, how on earth do they do it?  They go to the place we call school and when they come back they can translate these symbols on the page into words, meaning and understanding.  I literally sit there some nights with my mouth open in amazement and wonder how this little girl can read those big words.  I understand the mechanics of it as I used to be a high school teacher.  My wife understands it far better than I as she is a primary school teacher.  Even with that knowledge at my disposal, it still fills me with awe at how they do it.  It's a kind of magic!

Something very related to this experience that upsets me in equal measure to the joy the above brings me, is how we can allow people to reach adulthood without this skill set.  There are a couple of people in my life at the moment who I know or suspect are either completely illiterate, or have literacy issues.  Equally, I know one remarkable individual, who despite being written off at school as being stupid, once identified as having dyslexia has gone on to prove himself to be not only incredibly intelligent (with an IQ in the order of 130), but, very capable and successful as well.  So why is it that we let this happen?

Somewhat ironically, I went out and found myself a book on adult literacy.  A practical piece on how to approach helping someone to improve their reading and writing as an adult.  I did it with a view to seeing what I could do, even if it was on a small or an individual scale.  Some of the things it taught me about the obstacles that people who cannot read or write face really shocked me.  Things that we just take for granted.  Picture going to a restaurant and not knowing what's on the menu.  Think about how these days when you go to the supermarket, you often look at the back of the packet to understand the nutritional value (or lack thereof) of the product you are holding.  Is it any wonder that one of the biggest problems that illiterate people face is poor health.  They tend to go to the same places to eat, often fast food outlets, because they can familiarise themselves with the menu and these type of places tend to have pictures depicting their wares, targeting these very people (and kids of course, but, that is another story).  Imagine trying to understand the instructions written on the side of the medication that the doctor just prescribed you. Read a map anyone?  No thanks, I think I'll just stay local, stick with the familiar and limit my life's ambitions.

I know the economics and general reality of the education system is such that it caters to what are the needs of the many.  I know that there are plenty of other, worse things in the world.  It just saddens me to think that it happens and is avoidable.

There endeth my social commentary.  No apologies, but, thanks for sticking with me if you have done so to this point.  A bit more on topic next week.  I leave you with what I hope is a pleasant image of me reading with my daughters tonight before I tuck them into bed.  I'm looking forward to it already.