A few days ago, I came across a word I hadn’t heard before: healthism. I was curious, so I looked it up. The word describes a kind of philosophy I’ve noticed in recent years. It’s ubiquitous on social media, and it most often rears its head in the form of fat shaming. Healthism refers to several related ideas:
Health is a virtue in and of itself, something that should be an ultimate goal, rather than a means to other ends;
To be unhealthy, or to practice unhealthy behaviors or habits, is a character flaw; and
The state of a person’s health can be determined from their appearance.
Audible: The Reporter Who Knew Too Much: The Mysterious Death of What’s My Line TV Star and Media Icon Dorothy Kilgallen; Genius Foods: Become Smarter, Happier, and More Productive While Protecting Your Brain for Life
Where I’ve Been Recently: St. Augustine, FL (pre-baby trip in December/January); family excursions to Black Mountain College reHappening and Knoxville Opera Rossini festival
What I’m Looking Forward To: Taking the baby on his first big roadtrip to meet my family and friends in Pennsylvania
Latest Personal Project: Learning more about plant care and garden maintenance and trying to get my landscaping in better shape
Recent Moment of Joy: Interacting with the baby, hearing him try to talk, seeing him smile at me, and watching him gain skills. Yesterday he started trying to pick up his toys and put them in his mouth.
Currently Inspired By: All things minimalism/simple living (though you’d never know it by walking through my house!)
Grateful For: The ability to work from home for a while so I can spend more time with my little one
“You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”
I’ve been making intermittent efforts to eat locally produced food since I read Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle some years ago, although I’ve never had the dedication of Kingsolver’s family to eat exclusively local. I try to grow some veggies at home, but my success with gardening varies. Foreseeing that weekly Saturday morning visits to the farmer’s market would likely be a challenge this year, I recently signed up for a CSA share.
