Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Ok, I am posting this mostly for the benefit of Joybug because she always seems to enjoy my adventures (or misadventures). And I want to start off by saying that I realize that irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is no laughing matter, but I also want to say that context is everything. In the words of Jim West, one of my favorite people ever: Context is King. I feel like it's OK to relate this story because it happened in a fairly public forum.

A couple of weeks ago in my picture book class, we were studying Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit, and we were looking at the picture of Peter with a full, sick tummy after he's over indulged on carrots, lettuce and the like. So Peter is holding his sides and looks fairly sick. And one student in the back of the room raises his hand and says, "Well, I know how Peter feels, and this picture is very realistic, because I have irritable bowel syndrome, or IBS, and when you gotta go, you gotta go. And I mean it's really bad. And this looks totally realistic, and I can totally sympathize with Peter because I have IBS, and I know exactly what he feels like and what's going through his mind right now."

I didn't know how to respond to that, and believe me, I'm not often speechless. But the whole point about Peter is NOT that he has IBS but that 1.) He's disobeyed his mother and has to suffer and 2.) he stuffing himself with veggies so that should he should he be made into rabbit pie, like his father, he'll be all plumped up and seasoned and stuff. But his medical history is not an issue here. But really more to the point, who volunteers this sort of information in front of 19 of his peers? I'm pretty open about things like that, but it was totally irrelevant. Which, again, illustrates that context is everything.

A couple of days ago, I saw one of the females from the class, and she said, "I couldn't believe that guy said all that about IBS. I mean, his chances of getting a date on this campus have gone WAY down."

Why does this kind of thing have to happen to me?