I try to overlook his lack of height

I got to thinking about how we often treat those around us. Unintentionally, that is. Sometimes, we treat them pretty bad but we just don't think about it that way.

I play golf with a couple of groups. Mostly old guys, older than me. Makes me feel young in comparison. I am almost 66 and that used to be "ancient" to me. But now I have many friends and acquaintances who range from the mid-70's to early 80's.  We make jokes about "senior moments" and Alzheimer's (which is no joke, really), sight and hearing problems. We talk about parts of us that are stiff and shouldn't be and others that should be but aren't.

Some of these guys are quite short. Some are tall. Most are short, though. I have never considered myself tall. Just average. Well, I once was average but not anymore, now I am working on slightly short. It's all relative. I look at teenagers and a lot of them are well over 6 foot. My own son is 6'5". It was bound to happen; his mother was 5'10", I was (am, I guess) 5'11", and there's a lot of tall men in the families on both sides.

I digress... We make jokes about height. All of us, not just my golf friends, and it struck me how silly that is. We also make jokes about baldness, hair color, and other physical attributes. It's not like we can change them... except for hair color (and Real Men don't do that)... We have no control over height or baldness. I think we have very little control over weight, too, beyond obesity.

I grew up short. That is, I was small for my age until I was 17. And skinny. Really skinny. You think fat kids get picked on? Try being skinny. So skinny, your ribs showed. So skinny, you didn't want to take your shirt off. So skinny, you hated to go to the beach or a pool. And then toss in shortness. So skinny that no one saw you as a threat or a likely team member for baseball, football, or just about any sport. It wasn't easy growing up that way.

It could have been worse, I suppose. I could have had red hair, bad eyesight, and acne.

You would think I would have been more sensitive and not picked on kids around me because of that. But that wasn't true. I did it too. You'd think I wouldn't make fun of someone's height now but I do.

I guess we never learn, do we?