Combover

Today I saw at the post office what is without a doubt the WORST comb-over I have ever seen in person in my entire life. It looked absolutely atrocious. I snickered to myself. I tried to figure out if there was any subtle way I could take a picture with my iPhone. (I could not figure one out if there was.) I settled for posting a snarky status about said combover on my Facebook profile.

Self righteous person that I am, I basically thought to myself "WTF does this dude think he is hiding?! Does he seriously not realize how terrible this looks and that we all KNOW he is bald?!"

It wasn't until 5 minutes later when I was walking to my office that I realized what a hypocrite I was being. I mean -- let's be real. I used to weigh almost 300 lbs (and I'm not exactly planning to grace the SI swimsuit edition cover just yet). At my highest weight, sometimes I'd wear baggy clothes so as not to appear fat. I'd eat small portions and pretend to be full but then go home and eat a ton afterward. Who did **I** think I was kidding? I was the same as the comb-over man - trying to hide something that was undeniable, and only looking silly/preposterous in the attempt. A big difference, however, is that my attempt to fool myself was putting my health at risk -- this guy only looks silly with his combover.

It was an important reminder for me. I need to be a lot less self righteous and a lot less judgmental when I interact with others, even (especially?) strangers. My first impression was to judge this poor man who is obviously embarrassed about his baldness. His problem is genetic. My weight problem is the result of (MANY!!!) poor choices I have made. I cannot expect mercy from others if I do not extend it. It is a lot easier to tear people down than to build them up, but it is not the right thing to do. I need to work not only on making better choices not only with food, exercise, and lifestyle, but also with how I treat and view other people.