Fighting the Fight with Ponytails

She visits me in old Rancid concert t-shirts and perfect arching ponytails. Her cane has been decorated by her two young children who encourage her daily to "be different" and "be colorful" despite the new illness. And so we sit across from each other- I am encouraging arm strengthening and appropriate rest breaks between sets. "Can you write the exercises down for me?" she asks. I am embarrassed that I forgot to make a photocopy of the proper exercises as I had promised her last time we met. "I can draw you some super awesome stick figures doing the exercises," I say.

I pull out a lavender sheet of paper and I draw a stick figure holding a Theraband. The stick figure isn't quite a stick- she has a neck and lovely biceps that grow into hands that look like boxing gloves. I put the figure in a Rancid shirt and a massive side ponytail held in place by a gigantic scrunchy. "It's you," I tell her after drawing the first exercise and adding sweeping bangs to the forehead. "And you're smiling." I place a huge grin on the figure's face.

The next figure is bigger... I didn't mean to make her bigger. The pony tail is larger and the boxing gloves more refined. The next figure is even bigger. "She looks like she is actually moving! This has such great perspective!" my client exclaims and I admit, I've drawn a pretty dynamic ponytail. We are laughing uncontrollably as the next figure is even bigger. Scrunchies are everywhere and sweeping bangs could take over the world at this point. "I want to be this stick figure's friend!" my client says through snorts of laughter. "She's you!" I continue to convince her. "And she's still smiling!"

I finish my kitschy home exercise program and make her promise not to show anyone who wants to take me seriously. Ever. We are wiping tears from our eyes and I am so happy in these moments of "being helpful". I add an Everlast stamp to the boxing glove that is supposed to be a hand. "Keep on fighting the fight," I tell my clients after an hour's hard work. And you would not believe the champions I am honored to coach day in and day out. 

"The people laugh and love and dream, they fight, they hate to die" -The Mountain Bed, Woodie Guthrie

(Still one of my all time favorite songs ever)