Fat at Work: Pitfalls to being fat on the job
It’s not easy being stuck in the dark.
But that’s where I was, caught between stacks of metal bookshelves in the storage section of the public library.
The books were ones which didn’t circulate much anymore but that the library kept copies of for the random patron request. They were my favorites, these once-popular Evelyn Waughs and Jodi Piccoults and so on. There were some great finds in less than great shape after being handled so much, hopefully with care and consideration wearing them down by readers who loved the art of the tangible book.
It was one of my tasks to collect these requests from the shelves in the basement, the smell of musty books and newsprint permeating the air. While I’ve alluded to this in a previous piece, it bears revisiting.
So there I was, doing my job while fat, and I turned to reached for a book. Then I found I couldn’t untwist. The stacks of books, you understand,were tight together, with barely enough space to pass a cart through, and my hips touched the sides of each stack when facing forward. So when I turned there was nowhere else for my body to go.
I tried to calm myself, remembering another time when I’d done a job where I was unloading produce and had to squeeze between wire racks in a cooler. And, yes, had also gotten stuck…
