Control - GBE2 Week Four

I have control issues.

First of all, I’m a tad OCD, so I do sometimes try to control things in my life just a bit too tightly. Secondly, as a victim of abuse, I have problems with someone else trying to control me. It gets my hackles up and I often find passive-aggressive methods to retaliate until I’m so fed up I become confrontational.

Then there’s the fact that I’m diabetic and should be in better control of my diet than I am. Not to mention that I’m overweight (obese, actually), so there’s another aspect of food control I should be dealing with.

I lost control of my finances long ago and am still dealing with the ramifications of that in my life.

But, now that I am getting older, I have a new issue of control to contend with. You may have seen Whoopie Goldberg’s recent commercials regarding this problem. You may even remember having seen June Allison doing some commercials about this.

This is urinary incontinence. That wonderful little gift of nature that more frequently visits women than men as they get older. (Why is it that women are the ones who have problems with the departure of bodily fluids? Why can’t men have something that involuntarily leaves their bodies with the help of gravity and at the most inopportune of times?)

Sure, some have fewer issues with this problem than others. And, I’m sure that a lot of it could be resolved with the infamous Kegel exercises to regain control over the muscles that we for too long take for granted. Child birth only adds to the problem, particularly if you’ve had multiple children.  You might recall that Bible verse that says “happy is the man whose quiver is full of (children)”. It doesn’t say anything about the woman who had to bear them. All that physical trauma to our bodies, however much love is behind it, can take its toll.

If someone had told me I’d be substituting one kind of pad for another once I was finally rid of the first kind, I’d have slapped them silly. That was the ONLY thing I looked forward to in my aging future and then you’re telling me it’ll be a trade-off? So, yes – I do take issue with that new loss of control over my body. Some day, I hope to have a talk with the manufacturer about my dissatisfaction.