Raise the Hammer

I'm finding myself shaking my head at this exchange. The notion that Nicholas should have to essentially apologize for a comment that should not have been taken as some kind of slight is absurd. But this is where we are right now, with a faction of people girding themselves with umbrage at the slimmest (!) connotation or suggestion of 'fatness' or being 'overweight' or 'obesity' being injected into a conversation.

As this whole issue is one of my prime passions in Life, and as I have struggled with my own eating disorder while maintaining a broad fitness regimen almost all my life, I find I don't have any desire to 'play nice' when the subject comes up.

We've created a society that has –for the most part– detached itself from itself physically. As members of the animal kingdom, we've entirely abrogated our natural inclinations and said an emphatic 'Fuck you!' to our physical selves. And I'll tell ya, besides being saddening, maddening and frustrating...it's utterly disgusting.

And to think that this has happened over the relatively short time-span of fifty years. (Yes, I've lived it all, and can tell you first-hand what happened, but I won't take up space here.)

The 'excuses' I hear from 'the other side' are enough to make me barf...even when taking in all the contributing factors, all the extenuating circumstances. Here it is in a nutshell: when I was in public school in the mid-60s, we had maybe ONE 'overweight' kid in each class. I remember one school I went to, in the entire six grades there was ONE notable 'overweight' child, 'Fat Freddy'.

Go into any elementary school classroom now. Do a count. The percentage of 'overweight' kids is beyond alarming.

All the reasons, all the rationalizations in the world are fine and dandy, but the bottom line is that our obesity pandemic is the greatest risk to not only ourselves via the concomitant afflictions (heart disease, arthritis, Type 2 Diabetes, etc), but our health care system; the NHS in the UK predicted more than six years ago that its projections showed that it could very well be bankrupted because of obesity in less than two decades. This applies to Canada's system as well.

Enough with the 'acceptance'. We need to return to our physical selves. What we've allowed ourselves to become is a real betrayal.

'Cook fresh food. Be active. Have fun.'

Comment edited by mystoneycreek on 2011-08-06 08:32:11

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