photo credit: ihasahotdog.com

In nature, as in most things humans create, symmetry is often regarded as a form of perfection and beauty.  Symmetry is supposed to signal genetic “fitness” in evolutionary terms.  It symbolizes harmony in more abstract terms and is considered aesthetically pleasing.  Even in the sciences and more technical fields, it allows patterns to form more easily and is respected for its precision.  Most creatures and plants we know have a least one axis upon which is forms (more or less) a symmetrical image around.  We often look for it in the furniture we buy and the mates we choose.  There’s some sort of allure about it and any asymmetry is “tastefully” done so that things don’t appear “out of balance.”  Surely you’ve noticed this?

Symmetry comes in many, many forms and has affected all things from art to religion to science.  For me, it is most apparent in the peculiarities that come of being very conscious of symmetry in terms of balance.  I try to eat equally with both sides of my mouth.  I try to use both arms equally (constantly switching the hand with which I brush my teeth and hair, for example).  I try to not always sleep on the same side.  In all this effort, I have found I concentrate a lot on my semi-ambidextrousness: eat with a fork and spoon with my left hand; eat with chopsticks with my right hand.  Unfortunately, life doesn’t always work out so nicely and it’s unavoidable to drive with my right foot most of the time (I’m still working on the precision of applying pressure with my left foot), or —

Holy cow, I’ve just realized that I nearly thought my default thumb for pressing the space bar was my left one because I’ve been using that, but it’s because I trained myself to do so a few months ago!  Wow, it really worked and now I am far faster and more accurate typing without using my right thumb.  Now I’ll just have to switch back and forth between the two so I don’t lose dexterity in my right thumb now.  Ok, sorry for that digression.

So, as I was saying, not everything works out as well as I’d like, but for the most part I am constantly changing how I do things.  Some are just dangerous though – cutting with my right hand is still shaky business, shifting gears with my left hand could pose a huge hazard on the road, and riding goofy on my longboard could potentially give me more battle wounds and scars.

I'm not imagining it! 🙁

What I really wanted to address is the unevenness I suddenly noticed a few days back, when I took pictures of my belly (inspired by Katana, who did it to track her fitness).  I have not been this thin/light in many years, so I wanted to document how it looked so later on I can see the difference (and perhaps be inspired by it to not gain too much weight).  After all, I couldn’t see the difference in the weight I lost in the past 5 months.  The only way I could kind of tell a difference was that my pants fit looser and my belly got flatter.  Otherwise, I still have hefty thighs and a fair amount of belly fat.  When I looked at the first picture I took, I was shocked and thought I must not have stood straight, so I took another.  This time, it became apparent that it was not my posture – my waist really is uneven!  One side is a pretty straight line from ribcage to hips, but the other has that kind of “cinched” waist look that is supposed to be feminine.

I’ve always had a slightly uneven backside, with the muscles along my spine on the left side being bigger than the muscles along the right side.  Now it seems I have another problem with my right side being weaker and less muscular than my left!  How tragic.  So now I’m concentrating on trying to put more strain on that side and working it out more in my day-to-day movements to slowly even it out again.  My asymmetrical hair may be an accepted look, but an asymmetrical body… not so much.

Now what am I going to do about the one-sidedness of riding my longboard?