Growing Pains | Previous Challenge Entry

how it works

TITLE: Growing Pains | Previous Challenge Entry
By Colin Swann
06/08/07
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Coping with growing up can have its difficulties, especially when it leaves us all in different shapes and sizes. It can be agony for people who end up average in size, so what problems await those who end up too tall or too short?

The song with the line ‘Long tall Sally, six feet tall, sleeps in the kitchen, with her feet in the hall,’ although a bit over the top for someone just six feet tall, emphasises the awkwardness that tall people will encounter in certain areas as they grow up. On the other hand short persons have similar problems in reverse.

After a time, seven footers become immune to the knocks to their heads from bumping into things that are at normal head height. Conversely, five footers often find objects of ordinary height just out of reach, and need assistance to get them.

Visiting a theatre or cinema can have its drawbacks too. It is a question of seeing or not seeing. Remember Zacchaeus the little man who had to climb into a sycamore tree to get a peek at Jesus passing by. In a place of entertainment short people are better off sitting at the front, so as to be free of head blocks. Although, the tall ones have the ability to periscope from any position in the place, it can be a nuisance in blocking the view of others. The best way to remove such an obstacle is for tall people to sit at the back.

Something to be avoided by both little and large, are ill-fitting clothes. Those who are lanky will find their normal chest and waist sizes will leave them inches short on the arms and legs. Again, the reverse will happen with the petite individual, with enough spare material to make nine-inch turn-ups.

A jolly uncomfortable predicament for a long body on holiday is the bed size. Where a little person may decide to sleep up, down or across a normal bed; the long one has to sleep with feet sticking out. Of course twin beds forming a T shape can add to length, but isn’t a choice if two are sharing a room.

Cars are yet another cause for concern. The diminutive drivers who love to motor around in big cars will need a cushion or two to help them tower over the steering wheel and blocks below to help them reach the brakes. Whilst, taller drivers, in smaller vehicles, find their knees looking like chin rests.

Is it true that, ‘A good little one is better that a good big one’? It is a fact that the tall have farther to fall (at least from head height) and Biblical history does give a good example of this truth with the story of David and Goliath. However, size has nothing to do with ability. Some of the greatest men and women have been both tall and short, and size did not interfere with their success.

Variety is the spice of life, and, God provides all shapes and sizes in his humankind. How dull it would be if we were all level headed people. The secret is that whatever our lot, whether we are big or small, life is too short to waste on trying to stretch or shrink ourselves in our wishful thinking.

The long and the short of it is that it is impossible for us to change our height. Plastic surgery has pioneered body additions in many areas, but body extensions or reductions in length are not yet available. In the meantime be satisfied with your size.

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