I nearly fell out of my chair listening to this evening's CBS news! "You don't have to be thin to enjoy good health," Katie Couric spat out at lightening speed. If you blinked you missed it! A recent study of a group of overweight adults in America showed that a good percentage of them had low cholesterol and normal blood pressures. Notice when it's positive news we are merely overweight, NOT obese! The item rated 3 sentences and that was it! As I sat and thought over those three sentences a question suddenly came to my mind, "When did MAJORITY turn into, 'epidemic'?" Growing up I was constantly reminded; by other kids, by retailers in clothing, by coaches, etc. that as a large athelete I was in the minority. I had to work 10 times harder and out perform 100% of the time, kids as thin as rails, to be taken seriously on my varsity teams. I am reaping the reward for my efforts in my old age with arthritis and the need to have both my knees replaced! As I raised my girls in the late 80s and 90s I noticed an unspoken change in the rules. Large girls were all over the playing field! Personal insults regarding body habitus were now the exception rather than the rule from peers and coaches. This nation's girls were so close to achieving comfort within their own skins. Then came the internet and video games. Parents became frustrated and scared by the new dangers facing their kids and locked them away from the parks and ballfields. Our children became couch potatoes. Instead of being big and healthy and proud our girls turned into jaba the hut! Now instead of being the MAJORITY we are consigned to being the EPIDEMIC DEJUER!

Oh well, this too shall pass. The great consistency of history is that the pendulum inevitably swings the other way!