Adina’s Cute & Perky Blog!

Sometimes, Tacky Adina wants to come out and play!
I am good with my words. I can pop off a tacky comment faster than anyone you know.
When I do this at work, I will usually put my hand over my mouth and say, “Oh, I’m sorry. Tacky Adina came to work today.”
But I was blessed growing up in that few people made fun of my size. People were rarely tacky to me. In fact, the comments were so few and far between that I could write them down for you, word for word.
I tended to be kind, so I received kindness in return.
But there was this one girl…
I remember being at a church lock-in. There was a weight room. I ended up in there with three girls who were two grades above me. All three popular, beautiful, and thin.
I don’t even remember what we were doing, but I remember she could barely move 40 pounds on whatever it was.
I stepped up to it and promptly lifted the 40…then 50…then 60. I got it all the way up to 110.
In my excitement I squealed, “Look! I just did 110!!!”
(Excitement about how many pounds I moved in junior high. Let’s call that foreshadowing, shall we?!)
But more than that excitement, I remember the comment one of the girls flung back at me.
“That just means you weigh more than 110 pounds.”
Y’all…
She could have slapped me and I would have hurt less.
I felt that pain like a physical wound, and it stung.
She had everything, and I had nothing.
She was beautiful, and I was the unlovely.
She was thin… and I was fat.
And I carried the weight of that comment with me for years. Even now, if I think of it, tears sting my eyes.
And as chance would have it, I had the opportunity to have my day wit her this weekend.
I rarely login to Facebook. I go there when one of my friends fusses at me about leaving me a message there I never replied to. Yeah, that happened this weekend! Sue me! You’re not going to find me there!
So, I logged in to answer the message…and there was a friend request from someone who looked familiar. I had to read the name to be sure.
It was her… and she weighs more than 110 pounds.
I stared at the screen, tears in my eyes, wanting to comment. Wanting to make her feel the way she made me feel so many years ago.
But I didn’t have to look very far to see why I didn’t need to do that.
I am not that fat little girl. I certainly know what she did not back then, in that on many lifts you can move more than your body weight. Size, especially obesity, is not an indicator of how much you can lift. I lifted 110 on whatever that was, because I was strong. She could not push 40, because she was not.
And then I thought of a message I received Friday night. Just a sweet little “I love you too” message from someone who means more to me than he will ever know. Words that made me have to pull my car over because I could not see from the happy tears welling, brimming, and about to spill!
And what blessing in my life am I willing to give up to make that comment?
You see, making that comment would surely chip a little piece of who I am away. And what if it was the piece of me that he loves? Or my writing? Or the part of me that makes my kids cling to me? (Yeah, they’re mama’s boys!)
So I will add her as a friend later and tell her, “Thanks for the add. You brought back a memory from long ago.”
And in the end bad memories are nothing but opportunities to appreciate just how good we have it. And what she intended for spite, I turned in to joy.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 20th, 2009 at 4:49 am and is filed under Other. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.