Fat Woman Walking

The author reading excerpts from Fat Woman Walking College English Association, New Orleans, March 2019 ____________________________________ Hey, body, where are you when I need you? Body: You called? Me: Where have you been for the last year? Body: Watching helplessly as you packed on 20 pounds. Me: You have betrayed me. Body: How so? Me: You made me gain weight. (Body laughs.) Me: What’s so funny? Body : You’re delusional. I didn’t feed your face. Me: (Pouty.) I didn’t cheat all that much… Body: How about those three servings of Bananas Foster in New Orleans? Me: That was a special case; I was at a conference, and it was there . Body: And the Jambalaya …  Me: Hey, I only ate one helping of that. Body: If the line hadn’t been so long, you would have gone back for more. You made up for it with the King Cake .  Me: I had only one Sprite and rum. Body: And I commend you for that. My point: when you overfeed me, the foo...

The Author with Auntie, Summer 1968 _____________________________ “D IET.” Can you tell me how that word makes you feel? Oh, Lord. Don’t tell me you’re a Gestalt... No, Ms. Lee. Eclectic. Dabs of Freud, Jung, Horney, Skinner, Rogers, Ellis, and ‒ yes ‒ some Perls. I’d hate to think I’ve traveled all the way into my inner depths just to find a Cuckoo in a hot tub.... I like to think that I take the best of what psychiatry has to offer and give to my clients what they need. Now, then, where were we? “Diet.” Ah, yes. You were going to define that word for me. Well, maybe to ordinary people, “diet” is just another word in the English language, having one or two meanings, the primary denotative being, “to cause to take food” as a verb, and “food or drink regularly provided or consumed” as a noun. Then there is that lesser denotative meaning, a dieter’s term, which has to do with eating by prescribed rules established by doctors, nutritionists, families, peers, frie...