🚀 go-pugleaf

All this talk of being short is really interesting.  Everyone seems to feel
being short is a disadvantage.  So then why do so few people feel that
being Black (or Native American, or Mexican) is not a disadvantage.  Every
whine here has been echoed for years by Blacks and other minorities and no
one seems to believe them or care.   

Oh well,

A SHORT, Black Man

ming of mongo <ming@server.snni.com> wrote in article
<5a5epn$4s9@news.snni.com>...
> Why being short sucks.
> 
> <SNIP>
> There is, however, always a nagging little daemon sitting on your 
> shoulder, saying, "why you?"
> 
> The thing that really bugs you is that there are plenty of people out 
> there who don't have to compensate for anything, and you do.  There are 
> people who can sit by the pool sipping martinis, while you work eight 
> hours a day for a few bucks.  There are people who can get any job they 
> want because their parents know the right people, but your parents know 
> the checkout clerk at Walmart.  And, of course, there are guys who can 
> make a girl go all giggley just by being tall, while you have to fight an

> up-hill battle just to start a conversation.
> 
> I have always managed to put myself in situations where height is less of

> a primary issue.  As an artist, musician and writer, I can more easily 
> display more sides of myself in a more public way than most guys can, and

> therefore 'get the girl' more often than if I lacked those skills.  But 
> when I think of the effort it takes me to stack the deck enough so that I

> have an even chance, I feel sick inside.  Over 20 years of training, 
> experience and practice, and, if I may say so, a greater than average 
> natural aptitude for the arts...  all does not quite equal a few inches 
> of height.  
> 
> I am good enough at my job that I can't be ignored, but I often see 
> other people who manage just as well with less skill and effort.  Am I 
> envious?  YESSS!!!! Damn straight!  What I wouldn't give to avoid, just 
> for a few days, the feeling of always swimming against the current.
> 
> I sometimes wonder what I might have otherwise done with all the effort I

> have put into compensating for my height.  Some people may say that I 
> have improved myself greatly in ways others do not, on account of this 
> compensation, but I am not so sure.  After all, if my only motivation was

> getting laid, or public attention, the effort expended far exceeds the 
> return.  
> 
> An illitterate man can learn to read.  A weak man can lift weights.  What

> can a short man do?
> 
> I would feel different about it if there were some practical advantage to

> height, but in modern society... there isn't.  I have worked jobs ranging

> from construction to mechanical engineering, and I have yet to find 
> anything I couldn't accomplish.  If taller men ACTUALLY WERE better than 
> me in some respect, I wouldn't feel the total exasperation of the thing.
> 
> I have probably rambled enough.  The truth is, I don't spend my days 
> thinking about being short.  I am too busy.  But there are times when it 
> hits you, and takes the wind out of you.
> 
> I just wanted to do what I can to make it known that being short in this 
> society (probably most societies) costs a man dearly.  A debt he does not

> incurr, but must pay nonetheless.  I have been told that it is all in my 
> head, but if that was true, I could get it out of my head and be done 
> with it.  It is all in everyone's head... 
>