Dick Gregory

A long time ago, I went to hear Dick Gregory speak.

I'm not sure how that came about. In fact, the details are so blurry that I'm not even sure if what I "know" is true. But here's what I "know": I was in the U.S. Army, stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and someone who was in charge of something asked me and a couple of other young bucks if we wanted to go to the University of Tennessee to hear Dick Gregory speak. I know, I know, that sounds pretty unlikely. But I am pretty sure that that's what happened.

Anyway . . . I know that I was really jazzed about what Mr. Gregory had to say, but I have to admit that I only remember one thing, and it's a bit anticlimactic--especially if you know anything about Dick Gregory. I also have no context for this statement . . . might have been a brief aside, might have been in response to a question, might have been the whole topic of the lecture (unlikely, that). But I clearly remember Dick Gregory saying, "The best diet on earth is to drink 8 glasses of water every day."

Mmm-hmmm. 

I am absolutely certain of that line.

And I've thought about it a lot over the years. (About forty of them.) And I never really thought about it as being true until the past couple of months, wherein I've been making my first ever concerted effort to stop being fat. And I've been drinking more water than I ever have before . . . even more than in The Kidney Stone Years. And it kind of hit me that when I drink water as I'm eating . . . like bite of food, sip of water, rinse, lather, repeat . . . that I (1) drink a lot more water than I do otherwise, (2) it's not such a big fucking deal . . . like, no "I hafta drink this fucking water," and (3) I get fuller faster. I mean, for most of my life (no hyperbole here) I have stopped eating and not felt full or stopped eating only when I felt way overfull. Water seems to help me even this out.

You know.

Not a profound revelation or anything, I realize. Just thinkin' 'bout stuff.

ADDENDUM: Self-shame & pride compels me to say that the picture above these words was (1) taken of me in an exaggerated, air in the belly and belly pushed out posture and (2) manipulated to make me even wider (and shorter) than I really am.