Sunday, November 02, 2008

the girl of my dreams - #7


7. slender but not skinny

i'm not really sure how to respond to this prognostication. weight is always a delicate topic to touch on. so as I sat here to consider the meaning and how i felt about it, i decided to look up the definitions of both words, and that's when i made a startling discovery:

slender and skinny are synonyms!!!

having a noticeably small amount of body fat: tiny, lean, skinny, slender, slim, spare

so is megan prophecying something cryptic here??? perhaps she is saying something zen-like?

"For centuries, the secret doctrines of Zen learning have been transmitted from master to disciple in the form of seemingly absurd riddles called koans. Intense meditation upon these is said to lead to enlightenment"


i think megan may be trying to teach me using a koan. of course, the most famous koan is,

- "Two hands clap and there is a sound; what is the sound of one hand?"

others include:

- A monk asked Zhàozhōu, "Does a dog have Buddha nature or not?" Zhaozhou said, "".

- Huìnéng asked Hui Ming, "Without thinking of good or evil, show me your original face before your mother and father were born".

- Megan prophesied, "The girl of your dreams will be skinny but not skinny."

Slender but not slender...what does that mean???!??!

Perhaps Megan is saying the girl of my dreams does not exist. Like Utopia, a place of ideal perfection. But the sad truth is: the word utopia means "no + place". It is an imaginary and indefinitely remote place. She will be, but she will not be...


Or maybe she will somehow mysteriously embody both characteristics. Like Jesus is fully man and fully God. She will be fully skinny and fully not skinny.

A third option: In one sense she is skinny, but in another sense she is not skinny. Like how a person can be called a woman, but technically not be a woman. Umm, let's move on...

Or is there a fourth option. My mom believes there is a distinct difference between the words slender and skinny. Slender being thin, but elegant and slightly below average weight. Skinny also being thin, but significantly thinner than the average weight. Maybe Audrey Hepburn is an example of someone who is slender, but not skinny.


If this is the case, get me a time machine!!! But actually, I've never pictured myself with someone who was slender but not skinny. Guess it's time to broaden my horizons! or should I say, "NARROW my horizons!" HAHA!!! oh, ha, oh, heehee, i crack myself up.....

Wú.

4 comments:

Megs said...

haha! It's interesting to have these characteristics written about without explaining them myself. fun fun!

Dr. Coopernicus Who said...

hmm, i think you're going to need to explain each quality in fuller detail after i've gone through them all with my interpretation!

Demara said...

you're hilariously hilarious! I think there is definitely a difference between skinny and slender. I won't tell you what though.

kathleen marie said...

I will say one thing Dan...I've never seen a guy dare to write about the difference between slender and skinny. And then that led to reading on...and reading about your new obsession with shoes. Well, you're definitely rivaling with Nate Ramer for "most interesting read" right now!