3 August 2004, 9:30 am Berlin

hi angelique, hi liesbeth,
i remember (because i feel it again now) from the time before i reduced drinking, to have this strange “morning depression”. its not only a hangover — its is more a mental state already — it seems the body affects the mind in a causal/direct way, which i guess spinoza would deny. he says that there is no causal-relation between body and mind. for him it is parallel but not causal. do you or how do see a relation between body and mind?
xoxx and ahoi
elke

3 August 2004, 2:15 pm Berlin

hi angelique, hi liesbeth,
today is the sixth day of our cooperation. i find it a really interesting project. i totally agree in what you said that your mind decides which steps you are doing to take life in a direction that then affects your body. strange was that i (just by trying to eat what you eat) felt a very strong connection to you both from the first day on — even though i don’t know you. these ideas of how we live, of self-technics, of cooperations with people we don’t really know are ethic-political statements to me. to the investigation on women’s bodies: women always have been very sensitive to their bodies —this is somehow their “real-estate”, their “property” (to sell – i don’t see this (only) in a feminist way). more interesting to me is that one who did this investigation – the state and its institutions – the health care centers. taking care of life and defining what is normal – specially in women’s life... but although what you said is interestingthat the women never have the “right” idea about how big or thin they are – its really difficult to be “normal”.
actually to me the food we eat is getting to be too much - especially the breakfast and the 100 grams cheese in the night... i don’t know why now, it wasn't in the beginning – maybe i was scared that i would not get enough, cause you are skinny – and this fear made me happy about that much food.
hope you doing well,
your hungover,
elke

3 Augst 2004 6:38 pm Berlin

hi angelique, hi liesbeth,
i believe you.
ahoi,
elke

3 August 2004 12:00 pm Amsterdam

Hello Elke
as for us, we both can't see body and mind separately, how you appreciate your body or not is in strong relationship with your mind. In Holland they did an interesting investigation in how women appreciate their bodies and if there was a difference in anorexic women, normal-size-women and too fat women; the result was that only the anorexic women had a right image of how fat or skinny their body was. All other women tended to think that they were thinner than they actually were. But if I look at ourselves then? I know how unconsiously your mind effects your body; we have a lot of abnormalities in our blood which doctors can't find a reason for but I have the feeling it has something to do with our brains. Also, A. was stopped by the police one time when driving our mum's car for an alcohol test and we immediately thought we had a problem because she had drunk at least 4 glasses of wine. A. passed the test negative, which came as a completely surprise to the police! Somehow A. thinks that she could control her breath by concentrating very hard without doing that on purpose. But for me the evident reason is that being a twin you really have to learn that you are a different person because your mind is completely different than your sister’s and it is your mind thatdecides which steps you are going to take in life thatwill effect your body.

Yesterday was again the same: for lunch we had cold-cucumber soup and for dinner; 60 grams salmon with 1/2 onion baked in mustard and oil, in the oven, with baked courgette with 10 roasted pine-nuts, 1 small potato. Everything else was the same.
Speak to you tomorrow
bye!
l.a

3 August 2004, 5:02 pm Amsterdam

hello Elke
I think by writing everything down that we eat I actually get a better overview each day about the real amount, but we certainly eat the amount I have written to you – by the way: we are also curious how you look, can you send us an image?
cheers
l.a