CLUMSY

Years ago, when I lived in Massachusetts, we were working in the kitchen cleaning up or starting dinner or something and I was at the sink. My wife came by me and opened the dishwasher on my right, and was putting some things into it, left the door open to return with more and I never noticed her doing this. I finished whatever I was doing and moved, without checking the area a foot off of the ground, to my right. I contacted the open dishwasher door and went flying to my right, and landed on the floor, thankfully missing the door completely as it would have done in the dishwasher.


Clumsy people are simply clumsy. Large people have some locomotion problems moving about in a world designed by smaller people. The one size fits all concept is never true. It works in “most” of the cases.

While I have never been known for my clumsiness, it is somewhat evident in my life. Now that I have aged, it gets thrown in my face as if it just came about and is caused by some aging process, probably a brain dysfunction. As nasty as the accusation is, I need not defend myself although that’s usually the position I’m in. I feel threatened, and have to remind myself that I fell out of an amusement park ride at the age of 12 and I tripped in the garage and broke my ankle eleven years ago. All that happens now is more of a life long pattern rather than new events.

In a world where we all look at our elderly with a questioning glance (are they OK? Do they hear? Do they understand?) it is hard to have a perceived weakness. The kindness of strangers is not always appreciated, especially if we see it as their perception of our weakness. I will readily admit to a bit of paranoia, but I’m doing fine.

I’m just, as always, a bit clumsy!