Typing with Boxing Gloves On

Friday, June 30, 2006 | 5 comment(s)

I was inspired by Scott's post today to float a request for analogies / metaphors
A favorite movie quote:
Young boy: "That's not a metaphor, that's a simile. 'Laying pipe' is a metaphor."
Props to anyone who can name that movie.
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/ similies for what it's like trying to "manage" or "control" one's diabetes. Scott quite nicely sums up many of our frustrations in trying maintain all the variables required to manually control a process that SHOULD be carried out at the cellular level.

On the spot, the first thing that lept into my mind was that controlling one's diabetes is kinda like trying to type with boxing gloves
Perhaps...
Mittens might be a better analogy, and may imply a little bit more precision, too.
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on.

Scott's favorite quote about diabetes is:

"Diabetes is like being expected to play the piano with one hand while juggling items with another hand, all while balancing with deftness and dexterity on a tightrope"
- Marlene Less, 1983.

So put your creative hats on and let's here it in your words! How would you describe this ridiculously complex endeavor of manually controling a cellular process?

5 Comment(s):

Blogger Scott K. Johnson said...

I'm dying to know what movie that line is from....!!

I also really liked Lyrehca's comment:

"I once said that trying to maintain tight blood sugar control is like being on roller skates on a wide road and that the skates keep veering you from the left side of the road to the right, while instead, the whole time you're trying to walk down the center of the road on the double yellow line. On tiptoe. Without skates."

Blogger Lyrehca said...

Thanks, Scott!

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Since my daughter was dx'd, I have pictured managing diabetes as playing darts. As long as we're trying to hit the bulls eye, we'll be o.k. Problems arise when you aren't aiming or when you miss the board entirely and don't try to figure out what made you miss and how to maybe avoid that in the future. The fact that you rarely hit the bulls eye doesn't matter. Trying does. This works for me.

Blogger floreksa said...

I often ask DH while he's driving..."Are you driving with your eyes open, or are you using 'The Force'"?

That's me with diabetes. I go through stages where I'm driving with my eyes wide open, testing compulsively, watching what I eat...Then for some reason, almost like a light switch, I'm over to 'The Force', where everything I do D wise is just one big, Mr Toad's Wild Ride (and its a heck of a lot harder going from 'The Force' to Eyes Wide Open).

Blogger Kevin said...

Okay, so not quite the flood of responses I was hoping for (though I do like the juggling, roller skating, dart playing, and using "The Force" analogies very much). Next time, perhaps.

Moving right along then...

Scott (or anyone else that's curious): the movie quote is from "Pushing Tin." A John Cusack / Angelina Jolie / Billy Bob Thorton (and apparently Kate Blanchett's in there too) flick about air traffic control workers. A class of students are going through a tour in the control tower and the teach says something like "Guiding all these planes into safe landings is like a conductor leading an orchestra. That's a metaphor, kids. Can you say metaphor?" To which the one smart-ass kid replys: "That's not a metaphor, that's a simile. 'Laying pipe', now that's a metaphor."

I think that scene is about the only worthwhile thing in the entire movie (at least the rest of it left next to no impression on me what-so-ever).

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