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Who's in Charge Here?

t was another day at the grocery store. Shopping and decision making to ensure that the food I selected for myself and my then high-school age son was nutritious and within budget. For some reason, when a person of size is buying food, no matter what it is or how low calorie, low fat it is, there are those in the general public who feel it their duty to remind us that we are large, as though we just woke up that way that morning and it hadn't occurred to us to look in the mirror! In the environment of food purchase, it would seem that being rude and disrespectful to total strangers who are large is the last acceptable prejudice in this politically correct world.

On this day, I was almost finished with my shopping and the cart was fairly laden. As I stood looking over the frozen vegetable case, deciding on the purchase, a young boy about 6 or 7 years old left his mother's side across the aisle to make his way over to me. He planted his feet on the floor, put his fists on his hips, and in the loudest critical tone of voice he could muster, he yelled "BOY are you FAT!"

In that instant I looked up at his mother, expecting that she would reprimand him or at least call him to her, but she didn't. She just stood there. The other shoppers in the aisle had frozen in their tracks (pretty funny since it was the frozen food aisle) and the tension or apprehension in the air was palpable. I looked at the boy, and realizing his young age, I recognized that this was a learned behavior and not something a child that age would do on his own, unless he had seen it done by a parent or older sibling. I was left with several alternatives...ignore him and move on, reprimand him myself, say something derogatory to his permissive mother, or find a way to teach the boy to look at people differently. All of this was coursing through my mind at the speed of light. I opted for the teaching experience, which means I took control of the situation and chose an action, rather than knee-jerk reacting, handing over the control of the situation (and my peace of mind) to the hands of a child. I mimicked his stance, feet planted apart, fists on hips, leaned forward and in a voice at least as loud as his was, maybe louder, I said "YOU are absolutely RIGHT! And you are SHORT, and the gentleman over there is old, and the lady over here is tall. Isn't it WONDERFUL that God made us all special and different? Just THINK how BORING it would be if we all looked exactly alike!" The boy rocked back on his feet, changed body stance and dropped the fists, and cocked his head as though considering my statement. After a few seconds, he looked up and me with a sense of amazement or wonderment on his face and said "Yeah...it WOULD be boring!"

The apprehension and tension in the shoppers in the aisle visibly melted away and almost literally drained down the center of the aisle. Smiles appeared and people started moving again. It was almost like stop action photography. I then looked over at the boy's mother with a triumphant smirk (okay,...I'm human) and turned and walked away. I would like to think that the boy had his eyes opened a little, and maybe he won't do that again to anyone else. I can only hope that the next time his sibling or parent does that behavior, the boy will step in and remind them of God's wonders.

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