Two Bits

Shanel thinks she’s fat; I think I’m fat. For that matter, nearly every woman I know thinks she’s fat. Now comes the latest news on the diet front from the New York Times: “In a tightly controlled dieting experiment, obese people lost an average of just 6 to 10 pounds over two years.”

(<www.nytimes.com/2008/07/17/health/nutrition/17diets.html>) Now to be fair, the article does go on to say that even modest loses such as these have long-term health benefits, but gee whiz! Even though I have (ample) evidence to the contrary, I still had hopes for dropping 10 to 15 by tomorrow, and I have clothes in my closet to prove it!!!!

It makes very good evolutionary sense for those extra pounds to stick like glue, of course, but that doesn’t improve my disposition. The fact that my existence is probably due to my ancestors’ ability to make the most of every calorie does not compensate for the fact that I cannot expect a metamorphosis into today’s ideal of feminine beauty. Reminding myself that only 1,000 years ago, women in France wore bands around their necks to encourage that attractive double chin does no good at all.

I talk a good game – I say that what I’m really interested in is good health, and the ability to enjoy the things I want to do, but it’s a bald-faced lie. What I really want is to be attractive. Really attractive. Really, Really, Really attractive. I somehow believe that if I were a 10 (a 9 ½ probably wouldn’t cut it), all my faults would disappear. Nearly 60 years old, and I still subscribe to that fallacy.

Unfortunately, I think that a good deal of this is hard-wired – men are from Mars, women are from

Venus; men are judged on success, women are judged on attractiveness. This also makes very good sense from an evolutionary standpoint. A powerful, successful man can protect and provide for a woman’s offspring, and an attractive woman (i.e., someone who is young and fertile) can produce them.

If I were 10 pounds thinner, would I have more first dates? Probably. More second dates? I expect so. A better chance at a long-term, healthy relationship? I’m not so sure about that.

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I support Obama, but anyone who has spent time in Africa, Asia, or South America knows that Phil Gramm’s recent comment is true – many Americans are whiners.. It would be political suicide for any politician to admit the truth of Gramm’s statement, but I sincerely hope that Obama knows better. I wish that a major figure would stand up and speak truth to power. A very large proportion of the people in this country are wimps. I see them every day, window rolled up, air conditioners on. “What do you mean, you’re not running the air conditioner in your car? Oh, whoops, I didn’t know you don’t have a car.”

Even most very poor people in this country have a TV, a refrigerator, a car, more than one bedroom, potable water, and medical care - things that would make them middle class, or even rich, in many countries. (How about not being able to afford a band aid?).Approximately 2,300 people per day enter the U.S. illegally, according to the Pew Hispanic Trust - although some estimates are much higher – and many more attempt to enter the EU. They come in cars fitted out as leaky boats, in airless shipping containers, and across deserts where temperatures can reach 110 degrees.

Am I one of the lucky ones? Isn’t it a shame that Americans are losing their jobs and their homes? Isn’t it terrible that Americans are losing their life savings? Of course. But let’s nor lose sight of the fact that many people living in the word today would jump at the chance to be in their shoes. In fact they are dying for the chance to be in their shoes. (During fiscal year 2007 from Oct. 1 to May 31, there were 95 deaths, according to the Sierra Vista Herald (http://www.svherald.com/articles/2008/06/26/news/doc4863345471f3f583291569.txt)

When my kids were in Africa a few years ago, there was a joke going around. It said, “If the slave ships were coming today, we’d be paying to get on.” The economic crisis notwithstanding, people feel the same way today.

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There is a t-shirt that you can buy in my home town. It says, “If It’s Tourist Season, Why Can’t We Shoot Them?”. I’ve always wanted one, because it is a pretty accurate expression of the way I feel about the varmints. There’s no doubt about it; they are an invasive species - definitely weeds of the wost sort. They’re loud, they travel in herds and ruin hiking for the locals; they they wear the wrong clothes; and they don’t know the customs (if they do, they ignore them). I always have the feeling that they look down on the quaint local folk and think that their money entitles them to anything.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve been a tourist myself, from time to time. In fact, my daughter and I just got back from a vacation in the (admitting it publicly makes me cringe…) Bahamas. And it isn’t as though I’ve never done anything gauche or insensitive in a foreign country, because of course, I have, if only unwittingly. But remember the aphorism, “The customer is always right,”? Now I’m not saying that this doctrine excuses ‘Ugly American’ (or ‘Ugly French’ or Ugly Indonesian’) behavior or that strangers in a strange land shouldn’t try to learn about and understand the places they visit. And I’m not saying that anyone should have to accept demeaning treatment just because their customers are rich.  It’s just that people who make their living exploiting and/or catering to tourists should make an effort to be pleasant, helpful, and knowledgeable, because it is in their own best interest to do so. For many places, tourism is not just the goose that lays the golden egg, it’s the goose that lays the only egg.

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