{"id":3038,"date":"2015-03-19T15:04:50","date_gmt":"2015-03-19T05:04:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/veritysparks.com\/?p=3038"},"modified":"2015-04-06T11:16:55","modified_gmt":"2015-04-06T01:16:55","slug":"armless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/?p=3038","title":{"rendered":"DAMAGED"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"bugalugs_154\"<\/a>I’m damaged at present – but it’s my left arm and only temporary. I fell over in the garden whilst trying to move some rocks – by jumping on them<\/em>. I thought that the two rocks would fall straight forward but instead, they parted company and sent my sprawling onto yet another rock. This was very stupid and I probably don’t deserve the outpouring of sympathy I’ve been given. Though that may be because I’ve had a perverse pride in displaying the grotesquely swollen and multi-coloured thing hanging off my elbow. No one has actually vomited or fainted, but most wince and avert their eyes.
\n“It looks painful.” is the usual comment.
\n“It is,” I reply. I’m not even attempting to be stoic. But – as happened when I had a baby in a pram – it gives you an insight into what it would be like to have a disability.
\nA very, very tiny insight. Once, at an inner city railway station, I saw a young African man with both arms missing from just below the elbow…<\/p>\n

\"bugalugs_165\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Anyway, on the bright side, I now know that I must have good strong bones. Which reminds my of my parents saying, when I was little and cut myself, “Good red blood – that means you’re healthy!” in a cheering tone. I didn’t know then that\u00a0 blood only came in red.<\/p>\n

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I did get my husband to photograph my damaged arm but really it’s too revolting to post. So here are a couple of marble hands from the beautiful lake-side gardens in Ballarat. And a foot, too, complete with moth.<\/p>\n

\"bugalugs_157\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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I’ve been reading:
\nThe House in France<\/em> by Gully Wells
\nThe Song of the Lark<\/em> by Willa Cather
\nThe Desert Pilgrim<\/em> by Mary Swander
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m damaged at present – but it’s my left arm and only temporary. I fell over in the garden whilst trying to move some rocks – by jumping on them. I thought that the two rocks would fall straight forward … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3038"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3087,"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3038\/revisions\/3087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}