The Secret Life of Fat People

One day my boss and I were walking to a restaurant for lunch and it was quite cold. He made some remark about how bitter it was, and I concurred. In response to my comment, he mentioned that I might be warmer if I "zipped up". He said this because I was wearing my coat, but it was hanging open. Of course, what he did not know, as a person of average weight, was that I couldn't zip it up because I was too fat for it to fit properly.

Sometimes I think that the part of the world which has never been obese doesn't realize the level of suffering on a daily basis and on every level that very fat people endure. They can't conceptualize the myriad challenges that we face from clothes that won't fit right to shoe-tying to worrying about fitting into chairs. My boss is a wonderful and sensitive person. I have no doubt that he was completely oblivious as to why I didn't zip up my coat because the only reason he wouldn't have done so was that he forgot or was being careless. People tend to see the world through their own perspective and don't inhabit the reality of others without being forced to do so for one reason or another. They're not aware of "the secret life of fat people" and all the little embarrassments and humiliations we fear and endure. Of course, many of them could hardly care. They think we deserve to suffer for being such "lazy", "weak-willed", and "out-of-control" "pigs".

One of my fondest wishes come next winter is that I will finally have lost enough weight to zip up my coat. This past winter, my coat fit around my upper body with inches to spare, but is still at about 8 inches too small around my lower body. My disproportionate weight loss is troublesome in this regard, but I'm hoping the fat cells in my stomach and behind will finally relent and allow themselves to shrink by the time the harsh chill is back with a vengeance.