My
first impression of this was that she was way overreacting to what was really
not a bullying situation. For I took his
email as a sincere attempt to get her to stop being so okay with her
appearance.
A
close examination of what she says gives some indications that his concerns are
justified. Did you catch her qualifying
her acknowledgement of being overweight by saying, “First, the truth is that I am
overweight. You could call me fat, and
yes, even obese ON A DOCTOR’S CHART (starting at around the 1:37 mark of the
video)? Another indication occurred around
the 2:38 mark: “And that man’s words mean nothing to me.”
Alas,
a war against obesity has been declared by many public health officials, and
they are taking the fight way too far to the detriment of us all. For it costs taxpayer dollars to enforce such
idiotic rules as restricting the size of sugary soft drinks to no more than 16
ounces and menus having to include how many calories and fat each item has—not
to mention drastically changing school lunch menus, which will undoubtedly
result in literally tons of food having to be thrown out on account of most
kids simply refusing to eat it.
Besides,
which “scientific” study do we take as gospel this week? For as soon as one comes out that claims that
a certain amount of salt will lead to babies being born with too much ear hair within
three generations, another will come out and claim that the amount stated in
the other study is perfectly safe and even recommended!
There
is, however, another side that I do believe that Lvingston’s emailer was trying
to address. For as hard as the food Nazis
are pushing their healthy eating agenda, many are pushing back just as hard by
claiming that we should all be comfortable in our own skins.
No,
I am not at all suggesting that someone like Jennifer Livingston should not be
placed in the public eye, but she could have done so much more good by just
explaining that she has been trying to slim down (like she did [here]) instead
becoming so defiant.
Be
assured that I do not take any of this lightly.
You see, that is a picture of me that was taken a few years back, and
even though I am around a hundred pounds skinnier (insert chuckle here over me using
the word “skinnier”) now, I am still deeply ashamed of my physical appearance.
It
is something that I have had to live with my entire natural life. For our Heavenly Father saw fit to create me
with an extremely slow metabolism, and if I would try to eat like a normal
person, I would surely explode!
No,
it is not fair. For while I could gain
five pounds just thinking about devouring a slab of ribs, my brother could eat
six very full meals a day and lose weight while I was actually being much more
physically active than him, in regards to hauling hay, cutting firewood,
building fence and a host of other everyday activities on top of lifting
weights and generally exercising like crazy.
Don’t
you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in
your midst? If anyone destroys God’s
temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you
together are that temple.
Yes,
there is another side to this issue that should be addressed. For it is being preached from some pulpits
that being fat is a sin that just might land an unrepentant chunky-butt in Hell
for all of eternity.
Have
nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself
to be godly. For physical training is of
some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both
the present life and the life to come. This
is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance. That is why we labor and strive, because we
have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and
especially of those who believe.
No,
1 Timothy 4:7-10 is not a contradiction of 1 Corinthians 3:16-17. For what the Apostle Paul was given to convey
to the church in Corinth was specifically addressing the fact that some members
of that church saw nothing wrong with participating in drunken debauchery, and
it is meant to give us all written confirmation of the absolute truth of the
matter truly being that our Heavenly Father considers such conduct abominable.
More
importantly, let us focus on the fact that it is good for us to want to keep
our physical bodies as healthy as possible, but it is not as important as
wanting to become as close to our Heavenly Father as He will allow and enable
us to be. For this is what that part
about training himself (Timothy) in godliness is talking about—be assured. For it is also written: Therefore, my dear ones, as you have always obeyed (my
suggestions), so now, not only (with the enthusiasm you would show) in my
presence but much more because I am absent, work out (cultivate, carry out to
the goal, and fully complete) your own salvation with reverence and awe and
trembling (self-distrust, with serious caution, tenderness of conscience,
watchfulness against temptation, timidly shrinking from whatever might offend
God and discredit the name of Christ). (Not
in your own strength) for it is God Who is all the while effectually at work in
you (energizing and creating in you the power and desire), both to will and to
work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight. [Philippians 2:12-13 AMP]
Be
assured that we can get much, much closer to our Heavenly Father than what most
have been led to believe, and it is when someone truly is in a very close and
personal relationship with Him that they can be confident of truly being pleasing
in His sight. For instead of making
assumptions based upon their own understanding, He will actually tell them what
is what, and being pleasing in His sight is a lot more important than looking
good in front of a television camera.
Oh,
and while we are on this subject, be assured that there is another matter that
should not be ignored. For pride goeth
before destruction [Proverbs 16:18], and one of the proudest moments of my generally miserable life was when the drop-dead gorgeous wife of a neighbor came over to
the place I had before I met Arlynda to see about renting some pasture while I
was out on the truck and I saw her mouth actually flop wide open as I came
around the corner of the house with my shirt off. I also heard her mumble something about my
body, and I just shrugged it off in a very manly man way by replying that I had
lost some weight since the last time she had seen me when it was much more than
that. For I was still ingesting
ephedrine pills by the handfuls, and aside from them allowing me (naturally-speaking, of course) to drive between Salinas
(California) and Buffalo (New York) and back without a wink of sleep at least once
a week, which is around 6,000 miles round-trip taking the southern route, ephedrine worked
like an anabolic steroid in my system, which gave my muscles muscles. You can read all about it in the later
chapters of [The Crackerhead Chronicles], starting with [The Sixteenth Crumb (Chicken-Haulin’)].
Please Also Visit:
and
I did see her - and I admit it was a little over reactive. What I loved was that her husband was there and loved her in spite of it all.
ReplyDeleteYes, I saw her and had the exact feelings about what she said as well. Really, did she think we would jump on the band wagon and all rally to become way over weight, just because someone sat up and said hey wait a minute. The thing is this (to me) bottom line, what about the children? What??? But our children of today are so darn impressionable. Hey I see it on tv every day mom. She's got a great job, and hey she eats whatever. So yeah, like what ever MOM! I know we (most of us) do as we see others do, and we can change who and what we do by who we hang around with. So yeah, I was kind of scared of who my children hung around with, but it's more than that. To stand up and battle against that emailer, no way. We all get stuff in our face from time to time. We must live with it. But also think about what someone said to us. I do. Once a dear, dear friend of mine caught me by surprise. We were talking about a garage sale and I said, They tried to Jew me down. Oops, what a most horrible insult that was to her. I'd heard it a thousand and more times, and still do. But those words sliced through my friend, and I won't say that ever again. Yes if we are out there marketing ourselves in any form, and we make contact with other living souls.... we need to set the best example and be kind. A great post-and more power to you my friend!
ReplyDeleteI thought that woman over reacted as well. The original email was far from bullying. The follow-up email was also well within the limits of civilized discourse. I think protestations like hers diminish the real issue of bullying. She did no one any good with her little diatribe...
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by again, my dear Sandie!!! Yes, as he should.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by again, my dear Karen!!! Alas, it wasn't until after our Heavenly Father gave me a clue when I was well into my 30s that I came to realize just what "Jewing" someone down on the price of something was really saying. For it was an expression that my dad used all of the time. Be assured that he never meant it as a racial slur, but I can certainly understand how a Jew could take great offense to it. I hope Jennifer gets a clue.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by again, my dear Grace!!! Maybe you should give her a taste of what bullying in the Bronx is like? (LOL?)
ReplyDeletePortion sizes in the US are wildly oversized and there is a growing number of overweight people in the Western world. You can't blame people for trying to deal with this.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I would say she over reacted but I can also understand what she's saying to a point. When it comes to weight issues it isn't all just black and white. I do think that there is far too much pressure on younger people to be thin though which in far too many cases pushes things to the extreme.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by again, my dear Tony!!! Yes, I actually can. For one can get something smaller from the menu, and if it so happens that even that is too much, it can always be saved for later. Of course, there is also the possibility of not eating at all!
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by again, my dear Grace!!! It was a very pleasant surprise to me to find that most of the people I actually had direct dealings with in the five boroughs were actually rather nice to me--even when they really didn't have to be for professional reasons.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by again, my dear Ann!!! It is for this reason that I said that she would have done so much more good just saying what she did in the Good Morning America interview that I provided a link to than becoming so defiant in the broadcast video that went viral. Of course, if she had conducted herself with some civility, very few would have cared much about anything that she may have to say.
ReplyDelete