When they built the Titanic, they had a huge ship in mind. When they put the entire text of the Bible on the head of a pin, they had tiny in mind. Society has always had an obsession with size.
Many have fallen pry to this self-made obsession. You constantly hear people saying, “I’m too fat, I’m too short, I’m too tall, I’m too skinny.” Something about almost all of us isn’t right. Even I’ve got this obsession.
Many times I think to myself that I’m too short and skinny. Standing at 5’6″ and weighing in at just under 140 pounds, I could be considered for the part of a toothpick in a school play. On a windy day, I have to make sure I have extra change in my pocket to keep me from blowing away.
Part of the problem is that most of the time I only see people taller than me. Many in my own family are taller than I am. When I’m out and about, I see many more people every day. This helps even out the ratio a lot.
Weight wise, I don’t mind too much. If I were heavier, it would throw off my center of gravity and I would have less control over my stability. This was my biggest problem to overcome when I started walking so many years ago. I kept falling down because I couldn’t keep my balance. Today I have better control, so I only fall down on average of three times a year.
Each of us looks at our size as a disadvantage. I want to point out some advantages. For smaller people, you can count yourselves lucky when it comes to flying. I recently took an airplane trip and was happy to be so small because I still felt cramped in. Airline seats are not the most comfortable places to be for a long period of time. Being smaller is definitely an asset.
How about being at a shopping mall around Christmas time? Lots of people and little space. Being small, it’s easy to weave in and out of the crowd.
Some people may not think of this as an advantage, but what about buying cloths in the children’s department? Have you priced a suit for taller people and then looked at the price of a suit for children? It’s easy to save close to a hundred dollars or more.
Now for the tall people. One advantage is to be able to reach things on higher shelves. Do you know how many times I have to ask someone to get an item off a high shelve? Too many. Being taller allows you to take bigger strides, walking faster with not as much effort.
Another advantage is going to concerts or other events and seeing over other people. Most of the time you get a clear view of the action. For all of us short people, here’s an advantage to knowing someone taller. I have a friend that put me up on his shoulders once, just so I could see.
Besides putting myself on one of those stretcher racks of old, I’m going to stay the height I am. There are downsides to everything, but for every negative there is a positive. The more time spent dwelling on the negative, the more time wasted not enjoying the positive. We have an obsession with size. Let’s make it a positive obsession.
