No, I am not abused, and abuse is not anything to joke about, so I won't.
However, I am a water polo player.
Playing water polo means that aggression can occur. Most of it is unintentional. Sunday morning in the pool, I was guarding another player and got smacked hard in the face by her forearm (before that happened, it was a nice play, Petra).
It stung like the dickens when her arm connected, but after 30 seconds, it didn't hurt and we went on playing. (For an amusing article about "minor" injuries during water polo, click here.)
Later in the afternoon, though, I realized how many times a day I touch my nose, because it started to hurt! Pushing up my glasses, scratching an itch, even blowing my nose, all hurt. But as soon as the pain was gone, I would forgot about it until the next time I touched my nose.
The memory lapse must have some sort of evolutionary purpose, because if we remembered all the silly things that we do to hurt ourselves, we would never leave the house in fear. On the other hand, we can still do serious damage in the comfort of our own homes (i.e., broken toes).
So I will embrace the forgetfulness, venture out of the house into the danger, and continue playing water polo. I'll just remember to take my mouth guard along so I get to keep all my teeth.
Um ... that Washington Post article was pretty eye-opening.
ReplyDeleteWell I was thinking of asking how I could start playing water polo as a beginner but I read that article and I value my nose and teeth too much so I'll just stick to swimming. :)
ReplyDeleteI can relate! I'm always amazed that there are people who must get so few bumps and bruises that they actually *know* how they all occurred. I, on the other hand, am forever discovering new bruises it seems....
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