journal features

fatherhood and health

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Tokyo, 2008.11.30

One thing I hadn't really counted on in becoming a father (among so many others) was the many effects on my health. My weight's been bouncing up and down, for one thing. I reached a high of 98kg this summer, up from about 94kg at the time the kid was born. Now I'm back down to 92kg. I don't entirely know why.

Another thing is the plantar fasciitis. When I lived in Halifax I had adopted the somewhat sedentary local lifestyle and had put on weight as a result. The added weight started hurting my feet, and I forced myself to tend to my weight. The fasciitis eventually subsided.

But now that I'm carry 10kg of child around with me during mornings, evenings and all weekend, the fasciitis is back and worse than ever. It's about the last thing I expected.

I don't know what can be done about any of it, I suppose it's just a matter of coping. Like any other inconvenience.

rand()m quote

Immature poets imitate mature poets steal bad poets deface what they take and good poets make it into something better or at least something different. The good poet welds his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique utterly different than that from which it is torn the bad poet throws it into something which has no cohesion. A good poet will usually borrow from authors remote in time or alien in language or diverse in interest.

—T.S. Eliot