Incomplete email

[Guest guest]

Damnit! I hate when I hit the wrong keys and something goes before I'm

done!

To resume what I was saying.

The second half of the meeting was a waste of time for everybody. As an

outsider, I saw a group of people angry and frustrated that the entire

purpose of their schlepping over there was being frustrated by an endless

discussion of form over substance. If you have thought about this surgery

for ten minutes, much less had it done, there are not many other people who

understand what you are thinking, or feeling. It must have been incredibly

frustrating to see this monthly hour of opportunity slipping away from them.

It wasn't a particularly friendly place for newbies, as a group, but on the

other hand, that's not what the group is for. There is another group (so I

hear) for pre-ops. That's were we'd belong. Being fat is so isolating that

sometimes we forget there are lots of people just like us out there. Maybe

some of us are so frustrated that we want to look right at the result

instead of the process, just like we have with every diet we've ever tried,

and we want to get there NOW. We'd be better off in a group that is at the

same point we are at, rather than trying to look all the way down the road.

I was amazed at how people I spoke to so briefly touched so accurately on

things I had thought about or gave me things to ponder that have been

circling my brain ever since.

The people in Wednesday's group were very nice people (some outspoken by

nature, I suspect) who became testy in a moment of intense irritation. I'd

hate to see anybody turned off to the process or the idea just because of

what they saw there.