Overweighted
"She was a little overweighted," was the diplomatic and almost-right way my 6-year-old niece finished describing someone she saw recently.
I thought of that again this morning after I watched Susan Boyle's singing performance for "Britain's Got Talent" on YouTube. I was alerted to the event in an editorial by Cal Thomas in our local daily newspaper.
As media sensations go, Susan was an unlikely candidate. She was slightly "overweighted," and did not have polished manners or stylish clothing. The audience and judges initially treated her with poorly disguised disdain. But her hopefulness and her singing performance blew them all away.
What is it that makes it hard to see past a heavily encumbered physical frame? Despite counting myself among the "overweighted," I have the same common response to other overweighted people. No, I do not automatically reject them. But I always wonder how this came to be. Especially if something else about them turns out to be wonderfully positive and admirable, I wonder how the overweightedness fits in.
I've heard from some who believe it is usually a character issue, revealing a lack of self-control. Others refer to it as an initiative problem--not enough determination to get the necessary exercise. Have you also heard that people use eating to avoid dealing with painful or inconvenient realities? Sometimes an underactive thyroid gland is blamed. Or consuming foods refined in a way that makes storage of calories more likely than burning of calories as energy. Recently, certain environmental toxins that have entered the food chain have been found to interfere with efficient metabolism. The fact that obesity seems to run in families suggests the possibility of a hereditary component.
So who really knows what causes some people's body to balloon while others' stays taut and trim? Maybe, it's really not important to know what causes another's overweightedness. Maybe it's more important to confront our own tendencies to pigeon-hole, stereotype, and otherwise disregard the worth of an overweight individual and what they might offer the rest of us.
What was so impressive about the Susan Boyle performance is that it brought into sharp focus the fact that some people who are slender and attractive and privileged can also be pitifully small in character and spirit. And others who are large in body are just as large in talent and character and spirit.
God help us remember to view others through the lenses of acceptance and affirmation--the same lenses with which we hope others view us.
"Overweightedness" is not the worst fate that can befall a person. Small-minded disdain is far worse.
I thought of that again this morning after I watched Susan Boyle's singing performance for "Britain's Got Talent" on YouTube. I was alerted to the event in an editorial by Cal Thomas in our local daily newspaper.
As media sensations go, Susan was an unlikely candidate. She was slightly "overweighted," and did not have polished manners or stylish clothing. The audience and judges initially treated her with poorly disguised disdain. But her hopefulness and her singing performance blew them all away.
What is it that makes it hard to see past a heavily encumbered physical frame? Despite counting myself among the "overweighted," I have the same common response to other overweighted people. No, I do not automatically reject them. But I always wonder how this came to be. Especially if something else about them turns out to be wonderfully positive and admirable, I wonder how the overweightedness fits in.
I've heard from some who believe it is usually a character issue, revealing a lack of self-control. Others refer to it as an initiative problem--not enough determination to get the necessary exercise. Have you also heard that people use eating to avoid dealing with painful or inconvenient realities? Sometimes an underactive thyroid gland is blamed. Or consuming foods refined in a way that makes storage of calories more likely than burning of calories as energy. Recently, certain environmental toxins that have entered the food chain have been found to interfere with efficient metabolism. The fact that obesity seems to run in families suggests the possibility of a hereditary component.
So who really knows what causes some people's body to balloon while others' stays taut and trim? Maybe, it's really not important to know what causes another's overweightedness. Maybe it's more important to confront our own tendencies to pigeon-hole, stereotype, and otherwise disregard the worth of an overweight individual and what they might offer the rest of us.
What was so impressive about the Susan Boyle performance is that it brought into sharp focus the fact that some people who are slender and attractive and privileged can also be pitifully small in character and spirit. And others who are large in body are just as large in talent and character and spirit.
God help us remember to view others through the lenses of acceptance and affirmation--the same lenses with which we hope others view us.
"Overweightedness" is not the worst fate that can befall a person. Small-minded disdain is far worse.
posted by Mrs. I at
6:47 AM
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