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 height. 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.
Height doesn't matter when you love someone.
ReplyDeleteYou are absolutely right. We have fought this for years. It just seems that some people are incredibly stupid.
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