medals and scars

In Giant Killer Shark: The Musical, they sing, "Let's get drunk and compare scars in a slightly homoerotic fashion." Like in so many movies and situations, they wore their scars with pride like medals. Reasonably, they were proud of the things they had gotten through - especially if they had gotten hurt.

But what if they scars aren't physical? Can we really compare those? Can we ever be proud of them? Lately, I've been noticing that in the way I act, I've been metaphorically limping a bit. I'm noticing that when I want to do something one way, I'm strongly impeded from doing so, because of the things I've "gotten through".* The physical scars we compare are supposed to tell a story, but hopefully, they don't really leave people very broken. A trick knee or a weird fingernail may be inconvenient, but a fear of relationships or rampant insecurity can really affect one's life.

People do compare emotional scars like break-ups. Like the Bittergirls. At Sharron Matthew's cabaret, Mary Francis Moore and Alison Lawrence were talking about the Bittergirls being a movement of people talking their break-ups, and how talking about it and seeing that your problem is not old is supposed to make you not feel alone. That's not really the idea behind comparing physical scars, of course. I think the analogy can end there.

I don't know. Can I just resolve to stop acting scarred (Whoa. That word is really close to "scared")? Will that help even?

I should end with a joke. Umm. Uh. Okay, it looks like I'm fresh out of emotional scarring jokes. Anyone know any?








*Ambiguity noted.