the devil's inch
no, no. not that devil's inch, as in the urban legend that inspired the name of a boat in our boathouse ...
this is a bit different.
i've always thought of myself as short. i come from a family of fairly tall people and i think this has given me a bit of a height complex. for example, when i'm in a grocery store and the sweet little old lady who seems to shop for groceries at the same time i do every week asks me to get something off the top shelf for her, i hesitate because i doubt i can reach it. for those of you who have seen me, you know that this fear of mine is a bit of a joke, as i always blush to confess that i'm 5'7"; not exactly a short girl.
or so i thought.
at our crew party the other night, i stood next to the woman who rows in the seat behind me and we found out that we're exactly the same height. i had always thought she was taller than me. when i admitted this, she laughed and said that there was no way that could be true as she was only 5'6". her admission stopped me dead in my tracks. it didn't take long for my syllogism-challenged brain to compute:
proposition one: if i am the same height as mary-louise,
proposition two: and mary-louise is 5'6".
conclusion: i am 5'6".
what followed in the flurry of tape measures, hastily thrown off shoes and straight backs pressed up against wooden door frames was the massive shift in self-concept that i still have not quite recovered from. this morning as i was walking back from the breakfast place after a yummy breakfast with shani and kate, i distinctly felt short; it was like my spine was compressing. i have gone through my entire adult life up until now thinking i was an inch taller than i actually am; my worst fear, one of my bigger psychological hang-ups, has been revealed to be true. for some quite juvenile reason, probably related to my rather large feet, i've always been a little thankful that i was 5'7". my feet made slightly more sense when i was that height (as did my body weight!). now, as a newly short person, my feet (and my estimated body weight!) are absurd. clearly this new definition of self is going to take some growing into.
this is a bit different.
i've always thought of myself as short. i come from a family of fairly tall people and i think this has given me a bit of a height complex. for example, when i'm in a grocery store and the sweet little old lady who seems to shop for groceries at the same time i do every week asks me to get something off the top shelf for her, i hesitate because i doubt i can reach it. for those of you who have seen me, you know that this fear of mine is a bit of a joke, as i always blush to confess that i'm 5'7"; not exactly a short girl.
or so i thought.
at our crew party the other night, i stood next to the woman who rows in the seat behind me and we found out that we're exactly the same height. i had always thought she was taller than me. when i admitted this, she laughed and said that there was no way that could be true as she was only 5'6". her admission stopped me dead in my tracks. it didn't take long for my syllogism-challenged brain to compute:
proposition one: if i am the same height as mary-louise,
proposition two: and mary-louise is 5'6".
conclusion: i am 5'6".
what followed in the flurry of tape measures, hastily thrown off shoes and straight backs pressed up against wooden door frames was the massive shift in self-concept that i still have not quite recovered from. this morning as i was walking back from the breakfast place after a yummy breakfast with shani and kate, i distinctly felt short; it was like my spine was compressing. i have gone through my entire adult life up until now thinking i was an inch taller than i actually am; my worst fear, one of my bigger psychological hang-ups, has been revealed to be true. for some quite juvenile reason, probably related to my rather large feet, i've always been a little thankful that i was 5'7". my feet made slightly more sense when i was that height (as did my body weight!). now, as a newly short person, my feet (and my estimated body weight!) are absurd. clearly this new definition of self is going to take some growing into.
posted by Amanda Bonner at 10:52 a.m.
2 Comments:
Small in stature, great in heart ;)
(((((((HUG)))))))) CM, you are such a good friend!
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