Where Does It All End?

In another venue, the discussion of Body Mass Index and health insurance premiums has become a topic. It seems that health insurance companies have noticed that fat people have more health problems and wish to charge them an extra $10/month for health coverage. This made an obese writer somewhat angry. What angered him was that he was considered obese when he thought he was merely overweight.

The guy is 71 inches high and weighs in at 260. I'm not sure where he thought obese started, but it's probably like the term old – it starts someplace past where the current person stands. According to BMI charts, he should weigh about 175 and he was just sure that there were no people like that on the planet or at least in the good old U S of A.

While my own dear son is not exactly those svelte measurements, he is very close.

When I was working in a nursing home, the aides were all in a snit because they would meet guys at bars and then these same guys would lose interest when they found out that the women had one, two, or three kids back at home. They sat there whining that these guys probably had fathered kids of their own. I mean, they said, like what guy our age hasn't fathered a kid or two.

My own dear son was that age at the time and had no children to his credit. Still doesn't and he is a good five years older now.

When we are in a situation, we want to be "normal" and so we assume that everyone is in the same boat with us. Unless it is that we are superlative. That's okay. But to be fat or careless (wanton?) would be bad. To be gifted is great. To be stupid, not so much. And so everyone makes these same stupid mistakes, right?

Well, no. Not everyone makes the same mistakes. There are far too many mistakes to make and so we each get our allotment of mistakes to make and can therefore look on with mirth and perhaps sympathy when we see someone else making a different mistake.

Is it normal to be overweight? Pretty much. Is it healthy to be overweight? Of course not. Where does obese begin? According to charts, at 30 BMI with 40 being really bad and more and more tubs o' lard hitting the 50 range. So when you look around and see someone who is at that 45 BMI level, it is easy to think – thank Loki I'm not THAT fat. And it is true. But that doesn't negate the strain you are putting on your heart, lungs, joints, and all other systems when you are at the 30 BMI range.

The women who complained about men at bars might have been better served if they had held the men (boys?) responsible for their own situation to a higher standard. It isn't the fault of the guys cruising bars today trying to pick up chicks that they were misused in an earlier life.

My own dear son is the father of three beautiful children. He is responsible for those children and their mother. It hasn't always been easy for either of the young parents, but when was it ever easy for young parents?

All I can say to fat people is – eat less, move more. And when you are picking up dudes in a bar, for Allah's sake, use a raincoat and know how that works.