Equivalent Exchange

"To obtain, something of equal value must be lost.
That is alchemy’s first law of equivalent exchange."

~~FullMetal Alchemist beginning, Al’s voice.

In most cases, what we obtain is life experience, further intelligence on how to handle a situation or person, and the knowledge that we can deal when the next thing comes up in our life.  More often than not, wat we lose is the person who means so much to us.

I’ve been thinking throughout today because I’d said earlier that I believed in equivalent exchange.  I debated with myself on it, but now, I do believe it.  Because equivalent exchange doesn’t mean something like an eye for an eye.  It means that when you lose something, you gain something else.

Relating back to everything with Dan, I lost nearly everything there.  But now I know I did come back with something equivalent.  I know who I am.  I know what I can deal with.  I know that I can deal with just about anything.  I know I’m a smart individual, who has good morals and is growing a lot more honest with herself and others, and I thoroughly know that I did not deserve to be treated that way and refuse to put up with being used by anyone.

I think the most important thing on that "list" of mine is that because of everything then, I gained a pretty powerful tool.  I know who I am.  Yes, that’s an ever changing thing, but once you get a good hold on it, you can adapt fairly easily to the little changes.

That’s where most people might fail, I think.  They get broken down, emotionally trampled, and everything else, but instead of picking themselves up, they stay down.  It’s not a good choice.  And don’t get me wrong, it IS  a choice.  The more I think about it, the more I realize just about everything is a choice.

I saw a program on the Discovery channel or some such a few nights ago.  It was about people who have become grossly, (and may i stress GROSSLY) overweight.  They had a man on there who got to the point of weighing in at 1072 pounds.  And he was married!  That’s the thing that I think shocked me the most.  He’d gotten married, (when he weighed 700 odd pounds,) to a woman who stuck y him through his eating and through his losing weight.  They actually had to knock down a wall of his house to get him out of there.  His skin has apparently stretched as far as skin could go and I believe they said exposed tissue could be seen.  It was pretty gross.

They hospitalized him, though, and put him on an immediate diet.  He lost I think three hundred pounds in the hospital and when it was safe enough to operate, they performed that stomach stapling surgery on him.  The one where they close off a good portion of the stomach and make it so only a few onces can go into the stomach so the person is forced to consume less food at a time.

I think wat appalled me the most was his wife.  Cuz I guess she would bring him his food when he was no longer able to sit up, much less stand and walk to the fridge.  At one point when she was asked why she didn;t do anything, the husband said that the fastest way to alienate him was by telling him he couldn’t do something.  I find that a stupid reason, though, for her to still bring him food that he wanted.  I mean, to Hell with telling him that HE can’t; he can;t get out of bed.  She should have nee saying "I can’t."  "I can’t do that to you, I can’t let you eat anymore junk food, I can’t watch you die because of all this weight."  Cuz, literally, the guy looked like a whale.  I think they said he was something like seven and a half, eight feet wide?  That’s just gross.

Anyway, the program also said that weight loss and weight gain have to do with a chemical, (or possibly a gene,) that people have.  Or in some cases, don’t.  Hmm…  I’m not sure it was a cheical, but it was something in the brain.  Anyway, this brain thing, whatever it was, when it’s present in a person, it’s what tells you that you’ve eaten enough, that you’re full.  People lacking this brain thing don’t experience that and can keep eating long after a ‘normal’ person would be full.

One doctor said that the people wthout this brain function would always fall off the wagon of weight loss, yet, I don’t believe that it’s entirely genetic.  True, maybe the person is unable to stop eating without being taught how to control it, but anyone can look in a mirror or on the scale and see that they’re weight is getting out of control.  When someone reaches three, four, five hundred pounds, how do they not look at themselves and say, "Okay, this has to stop, I need to get this under control."?

Somany things that we don’t even think about are choices of the people in those situations.  Abuse, for one.  No, the abuse that takes place is not the victim’s fault, but you know what?  Not taking action is.  We’re taught from grade school that abuse is illegal and if we see someone, or are someone, in that position, that someone should be told so that it can be stopped.

People put themselves through so much pain at someone else’s expense.  Someone else who couldn’t care less.  And I don’t understand why the first person is willing to sacrifice themself over someone so selfish and ungrateful.  And why they’ll let themselves remain the victim.  Yes, let.  If you know you’re in a bad situation, why not do everything in your power to get out of it?  Why hide your head in denial and pipe dreams of ‘maybe it’ll get better on it’s own?’

Speaking of equivalent exchange, FullMetal Alchemist is on, so I’m gonna leave off here.