A Little Short of Courtesy

My wife and some of my children are shorter than what is average in America. I am 6’ 3” tall so sometimes the juxtaposition of our heights surprises people. We understand this. It is when people say some really stupid things that I want to reach out and choke someone.

It was cute when Suzanne and I were engaged and we went to a street dance in Iva and a little girl said, “Look, Mama, that tall man married that short lady.” It wasn’t so cute when, while getting ready for our wedding, one of Suzanne’s relatives suggested that I should marry her very young daughter instead of Suzanne because we were closer in height.

It always seemed like people thought we weren’t aware of the difference in our heights. It would always seem to happen that someone would make a comment about it when they saw us together for the first time.

There were so many times that we would hear the words, “You’re short.” I often wanted to say, “And you are rude.” Or maybe, “And you’re ugly, but she might grow.” My father said Suzanne was ten feet tall in his eyes. One of Suzanne’s teachers said “Great things come in small packages.”

I once heard Goofy from Disney use a line when someone insulted his son, Max. One day while we were at church, this woman came up to my son and said, “You are short.” I immediately responded, “Short? Why he’s twice as tall as I was when I was half his size.” The woman looked for a minute and said, “Oh, really? Well, he will probably be very tall when he grows up.”

Here’s your sign.

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