That's about the size of it...

I was thinking about tall and short people in the shower today, how size isn't always fair, but that all the advantages don't always go to the tall, in fact maybe rarely so, unless you play in the NBA. There's that song by the King Singers, "Short People Got No Reason To Live"(tongue in cheek)...but hey, even though I'm tall and so are my kids, look at all the short folk successes: so many famous actors probably average 5'8" and under and yet they look so big on the screen - Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino, even Robert Redford...Danny DeVito is probably famous because he IS so short. And then there's Martin Short. And what about actresses like Elizabeth Taylor...and Elizabeth Taylor...and. uhh(total blank) - well my wife rode down the elevator with Barbara Streisand once at the Plaza Hotel... teeny weeny! I'm sure you can think of more. I remember my BYU President when I went there as a freshman, Ernest L Wilkinson, a famous lawyer before that for winning big Indian settlements against the Government ...about 5'6, but tough? He'd shake hands with every student as they came through the registration line - thousands of them - and give a shake that felt like he'd milked a lot of cows. Then when we were all assembled, he'd do 100 pushups. Little man syndrome? Maybe, but I wouldn't want to tangle with him. So of course, it's all relative - talent can come in all sizes, shapes, colors. It's the size of the heart, the spirit that really counts, eh? And I was talking to a nephew this past weekend who had a lot of that as well as talent in high school as a 5'7" quarterback. But after getting no playing time, he finally asked his coach when he was going to get his chance and was told, "When you can see over the line." When I got my chance to sing with The Lettermen in 1969 and 70, it was partly because the tallest of the guys at 5'9" retired and was replaced with a guy who was 5'11". I had been considered before but was too tall. But when another one got sick who was 5'8", I was now considered as his temporary singing replacement, because I was 6'2" and the remaining original singer could wear elevator shoes that would put him up to 5'10" to create more uniformity in height. Plus, I think he enjoyed the view. Crazy. It's only when size is a deterrant to mobility that it matters - and right now...it matters. Yeah, we're talking about girth here... and oh, my aching knees! And that's about the size of it...